WATCH: Photo Essay and Timelapse Videos Document Pier 26 Construction

As ironworkers lay the steel for the pier's aerial walkway, another worker readies the tide deck for eventual planting. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The dock builders, iron workers, electricians, plumbers, concrete pourers and general laborers are gone now, leaving behind the newly opened Pier 26, their hard-wrought handiwork of two years.

During that time I had an up-close look at the complex construction of this unique pier park, including the remarkably engineered tide deck, the first of its kind river installation. The resulting photo essay and timelapse videos below are meant to provide a glimpse of that skillful work, as well as an even better appreciation of this much-welcomed addition to the Hudson River Park waterfront.

“I just think it’s neat,” William Faherty, the superintendent on the project for general contractor Gilbane Building Company, told me. “I mean, you get a blank slate, and when you walk away you have a park.”

The Making of Pier 26

Photographs and Video by Carl Glassman

The Making of Pier 26

Timelapse: Two Years in Two Minutes