A $100 million,
privately-financed project has transformed the historic, but
long-neglected, Chelsea Piers into a major center for public
recreation and waterfront access. The area is now a Mecca for
New York fitness buffs and those looking for a good work-out.
However, to call Chelsea Piers just an athletic facility doesn’t
do justice to this amazing complex. There are sports medicine
facilities, restaurants, shops, television & movie studios
(Silver Screen Studios) and a marina where you can catch some of
the Manhattan sightseeing cruises like Spirit Cruises and the
Chelsea Screamer.
The athletic facilities of
Chelsea Piers are broken up into various sections each located
on a different pier. The Golf Club, The Sports Center, Sky Rink,
The Roller Rinks, The Field House, Surfside 3 Maritime Center,
AMF Chelsea Piers Bowl and more are not located in the same
building, but you can easily get from one to the other.
Today, Chelsea Piers is
synonymous with sports in New York, and is not known for it’s
long history. The pier was first opened in 1910 and served as
New York’s premier passenger ship terminal for fifty years. It
served as the embarkation point for soldiers departing for the
battlefields of World Wars I and II and by the Fifties, became a
bustling cargo terminal.
Chelsea Piers was the
intended destination of the Titanic, due to arrive on
April 16, 1912. Obviously, the ill-fated ship never arrived, but
the 675 survivors who were rescued by the Cunard liner Carpathia
, arrived at the Chelsea Piers on April 20th
Eventually, airline travel
and short docks diminished the usefulness of Chelsea Piers as a
terminal. By the late seventies, Chelsea Piers were a nasty
combination of various warehouse and parking uses. Pier 60 was
the New York City TowPound; Pier 59, a repair shop for
sanitation trucks; and Pier 62, a U.S. Customs Impound Station.
It remained an eye sore and general dump until the early nineties
when Chelsea Piers Management was awarded the rights to lease
the Chelsea Piers and to develop and operate a sports and
entertainment facility on the premises.
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more about Chelsea Piers
