FYI: The Roosevelt Island "Prow"

On March 5, 2000, the F.Y.I. column in the New York Times ran the following Q and A regarding the construction of one of the few Roosevelt Island “points of interest” that point to the island being an island. If anyone has additional information regarding the design and construction let us know.

I have always wondered why at that spot and not somewhere else. I suppose it had to do with the boat landing referred to below. All I know is that every time my kids and I walk up that part of the promenade we have to build in a few minutes, at least, to play on the “boat”.

“A Nautical Stage

Q. A strange object that looks very much like a rusty old ship's prow protrudes from Roosevelt Island's west sea wall. It appears to be ''sailing'' across the channel toward 79th Street in Manhattan. What is it?

A. It's a performance stage and observation platform, built over an old boat landing in 1997 and designed to look . . . well, like a ship's prow. It projects about 50 feet out into the West Channel, and consists of a flat, unadorned concrete wedge clad with rusty plates of steel. Two small slots near the tip -- presumably for imaginary anchor chains -- are the only real nautical embellishment, though a few heavy mooring posts have been placed nearby.

The prow is in Octagon Park, in the northern section of the 157-acre island, below Coler Memorial Hospital. Nine acres of the 15-acre park, which was designed by Weintraub & di Domenico, a landscape architecture firm, were completed in 1992, but the prow is in a treeless forgotten area near the vents for the city's unfinished Third Water Tunnel. Set along a tattered section of the promenade, it is, at best, a diamond in the rough, though the view of Manhattan is stunning."

View from the South

Nautical Moorings

Octagon Dock

According to a conversation I had with an Octagon resident this past Summer this dock is probably not able to accept Ferry Service as it is wearing structurally such that the "contact" made with repeated moorings would cause it increasing damage. It appears safe for pedestrian traffic but beyond that it would probably not hold up to an official inspection to receive ferry service. At least that was the opinion of that resident.