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Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan
East Side, West Side, from the Little Red Lighthouse to Battery Park City, the wonders of Manhattan's waterfront are both celebrated and secret -- hidden in plain sight. In his brilliant exploration of this defining yet neglected shoreline, personal essayist Philip Lopate also recovers a part of the city's soul.
A native New Yorker, Lopate has embraced Manhattan by walking every inch of its perimeter, telling stories on the way of pirates (Captain Kidd) and power brokers (Robert Moses), the lowly shipworm and Typhoid Mary, public housing in Harlem and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. He evokes the magic of the once bustling old port from Melville's and Whitman's day to the era of the longshoremen in On the Waterfront, while appraising today's developers and environmental activists, and probing new plans for parks and pleasure domes with river views. Whether escorting us into unfamiliar, hazardous crannies or along a Beaux Arts esplanade, Waterfront is a grand literary ramble and defense of urban life by one of our most perceptive observers.
A native New Yorker, Lopate has embraced Manhattan by walking every inch of its perimeter, telling stories on the way of pirates (Captain Kidd) and power brokers (Robert Moses), the lowly shipworm and Typhoid Mary, public housing in Harlem and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. He evokes the magic of the once bustling old port from Melville's and Whitman's day to the era of the longshoremen in On the Waterfront, while appraising today's developers and environmental activists, and probing new plans for parks and pleasure domes with river views. Whether escorting us into unfamiliar, hazardous crannies or along a Beaux Arts esplanade, Waterfront is a grand literary ramble and defense of urban life by one of our most perceptive observers.
450 pages, Paperback
First published February 24, 2004
26 people are currently reading
836 people want to read
About the author
Phillip Lopate
104 books104 followersPhillip Lopate is the author of three personal essay collections, two novels, two poetry collections, a memoir of his teaching experiences, and a collection of his movie criticism. He has edited the following anthologies, and his essays, fiction, poetry, film and architectural criticism have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, The Paris Review, Harper's, Vogue, Esquire, New York Times, Harvard Educational Review, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, and New York University. He currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
January 1, 2009
I taught this book during the summer of 2005 as the anchor text of a content-based ESL curriculum at CUNY entitled “Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea” – it was sort of an examination of how water shapes New York Cit, literally and figuratively. First off, I should say that this is not an ideal ESL text – the narrative is too digressive, the sentences are too complex, and his style could never be translated into 5-paragraph-essay format (which, truth be told, is all most of the student want to learn in order to pass the CUNY entrance exams).
That said, it’s a highly entertaining, well-researched work organized around Lopate’s own walking journey around the periphery of Manhattan island. He fills tales of his own adventures with historical and literary anecdotes, giving the entire waterfront a mythic grandeur. I know much of the area he’s transversed, but many of them felt new to me from his takes. Others, like his descriptions of the Fulton Fish Market, are sadly already history as the market was moved to the Bronx at the end of 2005 to make downtown area more tourist-friendly. (One of my students that summer, an Israeli named Kobi, spent the entire summer going to the market at night once he heard it was to be closed; he said it was one of the last great things about New York)
You can tell he’s the brother of an NPR commentator (Leonard Lopate), but he has enough spunk and a few breaks from standard liberal party-line analysis to make for a dynamic read. For example, he has a chapter entitled “Robert Moses: A Revisionist Take” where he reassesses New Yorkers’ and his own ingrained hostility toward the much-reviled Moses, shaped mostly by his attachment to Jane Jacobs’ pedestrian utopian ideals and his reading of The Power Broker. It didn’t change my mind about Moses, but it made for some interesting reading.
That said, it’s a highly entertaining, well-researched work organized around Lopate’s own walking journey around the periphery of Manhattan island. He fills tales of his own adventures with historical and literary anecdotes, giving the entire waterfront a mythic grandeur. I know much of the area he’s transversed, but many of them felt new to me from his takes. Others, like his descriptions of the Fulton Fish Market, are sadly already history as the market was moved to the Bronx at the end of 2005 to make downtown area more tourist-friendly. (One of my students that summer, an Israeli named Kobi, spent the entire summer going to the market at night once he heard it was to be closed; he said it was one of the last great things about New York)
You can tell he’s the brother of an NPR commentator (Leonard Lopate), but he has enough spunk and a few breaks from standard liberal party-line analysis to make for a dynamic read. For example, he has a chapter entitled “Robert Moses: A Revisionist Take” where he reassesses New Yorkers’ and his own ingrained hostility toward the much-reviled Moses, shaped mostly by his attachment to Jane Jacobs’ pedestrian utopian ideals and his reading of The Power Broker. It didn’t change my mind about Moses, but it made for some interesting reading.
June 5, 2025
God I love this city
September 30, 2018
This book is split into two halves. At the halfway point, I was ready to give this a two-star review, but it improved a bit in the second half.
Mr. Lopate is an essayist who has been published extensively in The New Yorker, which I consider a strong recommendation, and which also sets my expectations at a high level. I expect a degree of brilliance, with this sort of pedigree, and what I found was competence. Given the potential of the subject -- a walk around the entire island of Manhattan -- this was pretty disappointing.
NYC, and Manhattan in particular, is justly considered a great city of the world. The author is clearly in love with it, but his utter lack of perspective and earnest, plodding style made it a chore rather than a joy to reach the end.
Let's start with the lack of perspective. Can he really be serious in positing that the view across the East River is the most beautiful cityscape in the world? Someone waking up in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sydney or Paris might find this view a bit provincial (though nicely upholding the stereotype of the typical Manhattanite). Ditto the "most beautiful bridge" (the Brooklyn Bridge) which is "the archeotype of bridges". As a San Francisco Bay resident, I find this sentiment worthy of pity rather than of scorn.
Great writers are concerned, above all, with connecting to their readers. Having laid out his task of walking all the way around Manhattan, the first half of the book bogs down in endless lamentations of how difficult/boring/ill-advised it is to do this. A great writer would have recognized that this is of no interest at all to his/her readers, and simply skipped the boring parts. Did he think we were going to jump on an airplane and fly to Manhattan just to check whether he actually covered every single block? More likely, it is inconceivable to him that there are actually people living anywhere else, and the only readers would be as familiar with the island as he is (which begs the question of why the book needed to be written at all.)
Another missed opportunity was the decision to keep the book in an all-text format. Since he had no interest in meeting and speaking to actual people he met along his trip, the focus is on architecture. This would be fine, had he and his publishers decided to illustrate some of the architecture under discussion with photos. Yes, there is a single photo at the beginning of each major section, but nothing to guide an outsider through his lengthy discussions of unique buildings.
The author seems to have a very limited worldview and this book will probably appeal to a very limited audience.
Mr. Lopate is an essayist who has been published extensively in The New Yorker, which I consider a strong recommendation, and which also sets my expectations at a high level. I expect a degree of brilliance, with this sort of pedigree, and what I found was competence. Given the potential of the subject -- a walk around the entire island of Manhattan -- this was pretty disappointing.
NYC, and Manhattan in particular, is justly considered a great city of the world. The author is clearly in love with it, but his utter lack of perspective and earnest, plodding style made it a chore rather than a joy to reach the end.
Let's start with the lack of perspective. Can he really be serious in positing that the view across the East River is the most beautiful cityscape in the world? Someone waking up in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sydney or Paris might find this view a bit provincial (though nicely upholding the stereotype of the typical Manhattanite). Ditto the "most beautiful bridge" (the Brooklyn Bridge) which is "the archeotype of bridges". As a San Francisco Bay resident, I find this sentiment worthy of pity rather than of scorn.
Great writers are concerned, above all, with connecting to their readers. Having laid out his task of walking all the way around Manhattan, the first half of the book bogs down in endless lamentations of how difficult/boring/ill-advised it is to do this. A great writer would have recognized that this is of no interest at all to his/her readers, and simply skipped the boring parts. Did he think we were going to jump on an airplane and fly to Manhattan just to check whether he actually covered every single block? More likely, it is inconceivable to him that there are actually people living anywhere else, and the only readers would be as familiar with the island as he is (which begs the question of why the book needed to be written at all.)
Another missed opportunity was the decision to keep the book in an all-text format. Since he had no interest in meeting and speaking to actual people he met along his trip, the focus is on architecture. This would be fine, had he and his publishers decided to illustrate some of the architecture under discussion with photos. Yes, there is a single photo at the beginning of each major section, but nothing to guide an outsider through his lengthy discussions of unique buildings.
The author seems to have a very limited worldview and this book will probably appeal to a very limited audience.
February 12, 2020
Fascinating especially looking back now, but I couldn't finish the East side :/
March 31, 2018
As someone who walks the perimeter of Manhattan Island in a day each spring, this was a valuable book for its in-the-weeds comparative look at the waterfront about twelve years ago.
As someone who’s interested in the many micro-enclaves and odd corners that make up Manhattan, as well as the history of how all of the major urban “scapes” of the island came to be, this was a great refresher/education on the stories that make the city.
As someone who’s ambivalent about whether injection of subjective narration works in a 400-page book about a metropolitan waterfront...Lopate’s strangely cantankerous voice ultimately proved worthwhile as a companion for all the miles and excurses. I don’t know that I’d want to walk with him, but it was interesting to read about his walks. The foray to North Brother Island was especially good.
As someone who’s interested in the many micro-enclaves and odd corners that make up Manhattan, as well as the history of how all of the major urban “scapes” of the island came to be, this was a great refresher/education on the stories that make the city.
As someone who’s ambivalent about whether injection of subjective narration works in a 400-page book about a metropolitan waterfront...Lopate’s strangely cantankerous voice ultimately proved worthwhile as a companion for all the miles and excurses. I don’t know that I’d want to walk with him, but it was interesting to read about his walks. The foray to North Brother Island was especially good.
September 7, 2019
I love New York City. I love walking around New York City. I love books about New York City. This book, about walking around (literally — it’s about circumnavigating the Manhattan waterfront on foot) should have been like manna for me. Sadly, it wasn’t even close to what I’d hoped for.
The author describes it as “a mixture of history, guidebook, architectural critique, reportage, personal memoir, literary criticism, nature writing, reverie, and who knows what else. Consider it a catchment of my waterfront thoughts.” I didn’t expect it to be so heavily-weighted in favor of politically-motivated history, though (thirty-odd pages on ConEd generating stations; fifty-odd pages on public housing, and so on). Interesting topics, certainly, but I was hoping for more “guidebook” and “architectural critique.”
The author describes it as “a mixture of history, guidebook, architectural critique, reportage, personal memoir, literary criticism, nature writing, reverie, and who knows what else. Consider it a catchment of my waterfront thoughts.” I didn’t expect it to be so heavily-weighted in favor of politically-motivated history, though (thirty-odd pages on ConEd generating stations; fifty-odd pages on public housing, and so on). Interesting topics, certainly, but I was hoping for more “guidebook” and “architectural critique.”
September 26, 2017
Part meditation, part history, part travelogue, Lopate's narrative is informative, witty and insightful insofar as the history of New York City IS in its waterfront, as Lopate argues. The rise and fall and rise again of its piers, wharves and boardwalks also chronicles its politics and tastes. Although much of the information can be found elsewhere and written by "experts," I appreciate its placement within the walking narrative. There is nothing revelational about the book except, for a New Yorker, a recognition of the familiar, but with added depth. As an avid walker and biker as of late along the coastal slivers of Manhattan and Brooklyn, this book is the thoughtful companion I've wanted to my explorations.
August 12, 2020
Interestingly dated now, I'm immediately drawn to looking up if the prospective and new NYC riverfront projects were ever completed, succeeded, or failed.
February 26, 2009
I recommend this book for a select group: those who have a good bit of familiarity with New York City and are fond of the rivers and the harbor. If you live in New York City, but you generally ignore the waterfront, you won't enjoy this book. If you love the water, but you don't know a lot about Manhattan particularly, you won't enjoy this book. If you like your nonfiction books to have a dispassionate and generally even narrator, you won't like this book. I fall into that small band that 1. lives in New York, 2. loves the waterfront in New York, and 3. can stomach a writer occasionally digressing to rambling. My one nagging annoyance with Mr. Lopate is that he slams on runners (and I count myself a runner) as just skimming the surface and not truly connecting to the waterfront. I'm almost willing to overlook that slight because he admits that he's not athletically inclined, so he has no valid perspective there.
July 28, 2019
Delightful and wonderfully written sociological, ecological and historical “tour” of Manhattan Island’s waterfront, complete with political insight and nods to the heroes of New York (Bette Midler and her New York Preservation Society stands out). Demons are highlighted too, especially pre President Donald Trump, interesting in a book published in 2004. The author is highly opinionated in the best New York way, and even seeks to (partially) resurrect the reputation of master builder Robert Moses, savaged by Robert Caro’s Power Broker. Some readers might find the book a little insidery, and it is possible that it is really just for New Yorkers...I am one of them, however.
December 21, 2023
You know when you go to a family gathering and you fall into a conversation with someone you initially find interesting and you get on a topic, but then they stray from that topic with an I'm the smartest person in the room stance and you start looking for a way out. Just when you've given up hope of returning to the original topic, they come back to it and have interesting points. That is this book. It could have been half the length and, for me, more interesting if I hadn't had to sit through his opinions on various writers and political figures in NYC.
May 20, 2017
I wanted to like this. No, I wanted to love it. But I didn't, and I know why I never previously finished this book. This time, I was determined. I found his excurses really broke up the flow of his narrative, such as it was, and he really needed a better editor. There was just too much detail and too much stream of consciousness information. That said, I was heartened by the fact that he bailed on the Saunter about the same time as I did the first time.
This book paints itself as a look at NYC's waterfront's history, but it's so dated that it isn't reflective of the current NYC waterfront. He began his journey not long after 9/11 and finished even the epilogue before NYC lost the bid for the 2012 Olympics. A lot of the west side greenway has been developed as has a chunk of the east side, and I'd love him to do this walk again to see if his opinion has changed.If he did, I'd like fewer excurses. The Robert Moses information - especially as it relates to LoMEX and Highbridge Park - is relevant, but a lot of the rest, especially re: the projects and North Brother Island's bird watching really belonged in another book.
While his west side walk was cohesive and flowed, his east side walks were choppy and changed direction. There's so much to be said for the East River shipping and early port history, but he only touched on that briefly when talking about the conversion of the old law tenements into the first housing projects.
If you're looking for a book on Manhattan explorations, Pete Hammil's Downtown: My Manhattan is much better.
This book paints itself as a look at NYC's waterfront's history, but it's so dated that it isn't reflective of the current NYC waterfront. He began his journey not long after 9/11 and finished even the epilogue before NYC lost the bid for the 2012 Olympics. A lot of the west side greenway has been developed as has a chunk of the east side, and I'd love him to do this walk again to see if his opinion has changed.If he did, I'd like fewer excurses. The Robert Moses information - especially as it relates to LoMEX and Highbridge Park - is relevant, but a lot of the rest, especially re: the projects and North Brother Island's bird watching really belonged in another book.
While his west side walk was cohesive and flowed, his east side walks were choppy and changed direction. There's so much to be said for the East River shipping and early port history, but he only touched on that briefly when talking about the conversion of the old law tenements into the first housing projects.
If you're looking for a book on Manhattan explorations, Pete Hammil's Downtown: My Manhattan is much better.
August 14, 2023
Who will like this book are lovers of New York in all its parts. It takes the reader around the coast of the island of Manhattan coast, providing interesting history, demographics and architecture. I have added to my list of New York sites to visit each of the areas described. I could envision many of them as I read.
September 27, 2025
Very conflicted about how much I liked this book. At times language and prose was impossible to read but definitely warmed up to the writing style by the end. Super niche subject that appeals to someone familiar with the city and no one else. Still enjoyed the topic + history
June 22, 2019
Often interesting, while, at times, kind of tone deaf.
Did the author happen to mention that he was a “Native New Yorker”?...oh, what sets us apart...
Did the author happen to mention that he was a “Native New Yorker”?...oh, what sets us apart...
April 30, 2020
So much history and stories of Manhattan emerge from the many walks around the waterfront. Mr. Lopate knows how to tell the epic story of the city he calls home, and so obviously loves.
October 23, 2021
One point off for being a horny old man , plus five for a great history of nyc development !
December 4, 2017
I just couldn't take Lopate's writing style anymore! I did learn some interesting things from this book, but why did he have to temper all the historical facts with his own rambling personal anecdotes and observations?
It really irked me how disdainful he was of certain waterfront areas which weren't gritty enough for him. Here's an example:
"Battery Park City...South Street Seaport...and the Hudson River Park...all have in common a certain antiseptic, deadened quality, as though the theoretical air of the original prospectus renderings clung to them even after they were translated into physical realities...all three resist integration into the nitty-gritty, everyday city, partly from failure for the skin graft to take, partly from explicit intent."
He romanticizes the city's past as a shipping center, and can't really get over the fact that it won't return. Our city's parks need to be relevant for the people who live here now, but Lopate can't get any pleasure from many of the waterfront parks that have been built in the last few decades.
I wonder what he would think of the lovely Riverside Park South, which hadn't been completed when he wrote his book. That park certainly does try to combine awareness of history with modern sensibilities and is always full of people enjoying the space.
It really irked me how disdainful he was of certain waterfront areas which weren't gritty enough for him. Here's an example:
"Battery Park City...South Street Seaport...and the Hudson River Park...all have in common a certain antiseptic, deadened quality, as though the theoretical air of the original prospectus renderings clung to them even after they were translated into physical realities...all three resist integration into the nitty-gritty, everyday city, partly from failure for the skin graft to take, partly from explicit intent."
He romanticizes the city's past as a shipping center, and can't really get over the fact that it won't return. Our city's parks need to be relevant for the people who live here now, but Lopate can't get any pleasure from many of the waterfront parks that have been built in the last few decades.
I wonder what he would think of the lovely Riverside Park South, which hadn't been completed when he wrote his book. That park certainly does try to combine awareness of history with modern sensibilities and is always full of people enjoying the space.
July 17, 2015
FIRST LINE REVIEW: "Manhattan is shaped like an ocean liner or like a lozenge or like a paramecium (what remains of its protruding piers, its cilia) or like a gourd or like some sort of fish, a striped bass, say, but most of all like a luxury liner, permanently docked, going nowhere." Although Manhattan isn't going anywhere, I feel like I've gone on a wonderful journey around this richly provocative island. I know the inland parts fairly well (not really, but I like to think so), but knew nothing about it's watery edges. Now I do! I feel like I've walked them alongside Lopate, a fascinating character with whom I've actually walked the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania. As the opening line of this "walking narrative" reveals, he can use words to open up new vistas on very old places. I learned much and wanted to see, first-hand, much that he described.
September 11, 2008
In a highly discursive, personal style, Lopate looks up close at the 30-odd miles of Manhattan waterfront, with a few bits of Brooklyn and Queens thrown in for context and diversion. Adding considerable doses of history and contemporary reportage to his walking explorations, he considers from every possible angle new uses for a once largely industrial waterfront. He finds great and small pockets of vision and adaptation but not surprisingly a central focus is elusive. The book is a great storehouse of information and ideas--tested or merely thought--to inspire those who understand that New York is really a city on the water, sorely in need of readapting its capacious waterfronts to the post-industrial age.
February 3, 2008
Excellent tour of Manhattan’s shoreline with a fine mix of social history, architecture, literary lore, and descriptions of time and place. Nicely illustrated as well. Lopate’s specialty is the personal essay and each chapter is an essay of sorts, taking a chunk of the waterfront, with occasional chapter length digressions on topics such as shipworms, Joseph Mitchell, Robert Moses, and the projects. I found the book a very good read, informative and entertaining, as well as a source of ideas for several day trips to parts of Manhattan I’d never heard of or had heard of but never thought to visit.
February 4, 2014
Blog worthy, not book worthy. Part of my lack of enthusiasm for this book is my own fault for not realizing it is essentially a personal essay collection. I was hoping for a casual, historical reflection. Overall it was probably 1/3 historical, 2/3 personal. The greatest chapters in the book are probably the "excurses" when he goes off on a "tangent" (in his mind) and actually shares some well-researched, if casually-shared, information. But any saving grace from those chapters was forgotten as I'd read--for pages on end--about his personal feelings about architecture, or about how a park reminded him of the time his ex-wife got an abortion. Also, why not add more pictures?
March 30, 2009
The best thing I got out of this book was realizing the extent to which Manhattan has forsaken its waterfront, which should be its most valuable territory. Its industrial uses have faded, and while there are some nice public spaces, the current state of affairs is hard to reconcile with the image of modern New York as maximally developed and highly prosperous.
Apart from that, I enjoyed the author's writing style and digressions into history. As a resident of Upper Manhattan I'm always glad to see it get some attention.
Apart from that, I enjoyed the author's writing style and digressions into history. As a resident of Upper Manhattan I'm always glad to see it get some attention.
June 14, 2009
And with this ends my random-reading study of New York.
"New York's waterfront has undergone a three-stage revaluation-from the world's largest port to an abandoned, seedy no-man's land to a highly desirable zone of parks and upscale retail and residential properties-each metamorphosis only incompletely shedding earlier associations." (Book Jacket)
Probably more interesting to locals because it outlines the city's more recent history and details places that I will certainly never see in the short time I will spend there. I did a lot of skimming here.
"New York's waterfront has undergone a three-stage revaluation-from the world's largest port to an abandoned, seedy no-man's land to a highly desirable zone of parks and upscale retail and residential properties-each metamorphosis only incompletely shedding earlier associations." (Book Jacket)
Probably more interesting to locals because it outlines the city's more recent history and details places that I will certainly never see in the short time I will spend there. I did a lot of skimming here.
July 28, 2007
I'm not crazy about Lopate's writing, but this book is just full of fascinating information about the politics and geography of NYC's waterfront. Lopate does a nice job of highlighting the paradoxical nature of his subject--the waterfront defines New York, and yet on a daily basis it's far less present in most residents' lives than water is for residents of, say, Seattle or Chicago.
If you care about New York or urban geography more generally, this is worth the time.
If you care about New York or urban geography more generally, this is worth the time.
July 10, 2008
This is a terrific piece of non-fiction for NYC lovers, former residents, or those people interested in not just the city but the water that surrounds it. The author walks from Battery Park city up the west side, crosses town, and heads south on the east side. He gives you a clear vision of the waterfront(s) and the neighborhoods that abut them.
January 22, 2010
I read this one a while ago, but hadn't realized I'd neglected to add a review. Good perspective on the city, makes a great complement with At Sea in the City: New York from the Water's Edge.
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March 22, 2011In preparation for my circumambulation of Manhattan this spring...A disorganizing romp through the history of the Manhattan waterfront. I didn't like the geographical discontinuity (it would have been better organized rhetorically if he proceeded in one direction). Lots of interesting tidbits and facts, but the 9/11 motivation/conclusion didn't seem satisfactory to me.
July 28, 2016
I liked the history stuff, that's the point in me picking this up. But I was so bored of the personal essay stuff. I just could not care about this guy and every time he talked about himself - which he did a lot, way too much - or physically (awkwardly) described a person he interviewed or observed I grew annoyed and frustrated.
August 3, 2009
I can't stand Lopate's writing style (much as I can't stand his brother Leonard's interviewing style on WNYC) - it's half diary, half notes he took from every history book ever written about the city. But it manages to come off a great read anyway, being full of the city, water, and anecdotes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews