Going to the beach is going to become easier for Manhattan residents.

The Hudson River Park Trust is developing the first public beach in Manhattan. It will be be located on the south side of the Gansevort Peninsula, a rocky 5.5 acre parcel of landfill that juts into the Hudson River between Gansevoort and Little West 12th streets.

It will be designed by James Corner Field Operations, the same architectural firm behind the High Line in Manhattan and Domino Park on the Brooklyn waterfront. The site had been used for a Sanitation Department garage until recently.

The CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust won’t say yet if visitors to the new beach beach will be allowed to swim, given the strong currents and sewer outflow pipes in the Hudson.

"That’s why we have all the engineering going on right now," CEO Madelyn Wils explained, "to determine the wakes, the currents, and the debris that might flow in and out."

The plan for Gansevoort Peninsula is one of five major pier projects under way along the 4.5 mile-long Hudson River Park.

Pier 26 will provide a ride back in a time machine of sorts when it's done next year. It will feature the species of indigenous flowers, plants and trees that grew in the area hundreds of years ago, before New York became a city.

It will be designed to allow visitors to walk on a platform during low tide to look closely at what lives and grows in the Hudson River. 

Pier 55 will take two more years to finish. It’s the Barry Diller- and Diane VonFurstenberg-funded “island” being built near 14th Street to house an amphitheater and cultural and recreational areas.

A baseball toss north is Pier 57.  Google is moving into the 67-year-old structure. It will have shopping, open space and a roof park with a completion target of next year.

"You will not recognize Hudson River Park in many areas because we are now building close to a billion dollars’ worth of projects," said Wils. The Trust says there will be 16 piers and peninsulas open by 2024.

The one seemingly furthest from completion is the furthest north. It's located off 57th Street, at the southern end of the West Side Highway. Pier 97 is in the planning stages, just like the proposed beach.

New Yorkers will have a chance to wade into the discussion about what should be included in the Gansevoort Peninsula Beach. A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 26th at 6:45PM at MS 297, 75 Morton Street in Manhattan.