More public space on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge opened Monday, expanding upon the city’s efforts to revitalize an area known as “The Arches.”
Located under the Brooklyn Bridge in Chinatown, the city has slowly been making the large swath of land more accessible to the public in phases.
Monday’s announcement marks the DOT’s latest efforts to rejuvenate the area and return it to the public.
City officials said in a press release that the 15,000 square feet of extra space opening Monday includes more than a dozen benches, as well as more than a dozen oaks, elms and Japanese pagoda trees.
In May of 2023, the city reopened approximately an acre of the space to the public. That area features basketball and pickleball courts, shuffleboard tables and public seating. It also coincided with the return of a popular skatepark in the area.
Much of the area had been closed since 2010, when the city began rehabilitating the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge’s restoration included cleaning its stones to restore the bridge’s towers to their original gray color.
“For the last decade, NYC DOT crews have worked hard to restore the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, creating a cleaner, brighter, and safer bridge to last us another century,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Now that this critical restoration is nearing a close, we are returning another portion of ‘The Arches’ to the community. For residents of and visitors to lower Manhattan and Chinatown, even small public spaces are precious – and we will continue working with the community to open even more of the Arches in the months ahead.”
The largest sections of The Arches have yet to be reopened. The city DOT said in a press release that they plan to hold community board meetings and other sessions about the project before the end of the year.
The city DOT also applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in September to help fund the project under a pilot created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is awaiting a decision, officials said.