Early development Dutch settlers acquired the present-day site of Bushwick Inlet Park from the
Lenape in 1638. Seven years later, a married couple, Dirck Volkertsen de Noorman and Christina Vigne, started the area's first farm along the creek. The Noorman farm was believed to have been at the present-day intersection of Franklin and Calyer Streets, two blocks north of Bushwick Inlet. At the time, Bushwick Inlet was unofficially referred to as "Noorman's Kil" during its early years; that name is retained by a bar in Williamsburg. The
USS Monitor was built in the
Continental Iron Works at Bushwick Inlet, and it was launched in October 1861. Subsequently,
Monitor fought against the
CSS Virginia in the
Battle of Hampton Roads during the
American Civil War. The bridge over the creek was replaced in 1869. A proposal to fill in Bushwick Creek, and replace it with a park, was brought forward in 1896. By then, the creek was being used as an outflow point for the surrounding area's sewage system. Property owners initially objected to the sewer because they would have to pay for it, even though the stench from Bushwick Creek's
standing water permeated nearby properties. Covering the creek was seen as a way to mitigate these smells. The infill operation was completed by 1913. The bridge connecting Franklin Street and Kent Avenue was demolished, and the marsh in McCarren Park was filled in. At the same time, the Greenpoint Monitor Museum was looking for funding to build a park and museum commemorating the
USS Monitor. The museum would be at the former Continental Iron Works site on the northern shore of Bushwick Inlet. In 2003, the museum acquired one acre of parkland around Bushwick Inlet. The museum received $600,000 in funding in 2015, which was derived from a $19.2 settlement paid out as part of the cleanup of the
Greenpoint oil spill in nearby
Newtown Creek. In 2005, a 175-block area in Greenpoint and Williamsburg was rezoned under a plan approved by the administration of Mayor
Michael Bloomberg. This would be part of a combined system of waterfront parks in the two neighborhoods, with a total combined area of . The park would cost of $80 to $90 million. A shoreline esplanade between Newtown Creek and East River State Park would pass through the park and run around the inlet. The park would also contain a shared pedestrian and bicycle path. Over the next several years, plans for developing the park stalled. The largest impediment to developing the park was an 11-acre parcel occupied by a warehouse for the company CitiStorage, which was in the middle of the proposed parkland. Brodsky later raised his sale price to a half-billion dollars. Two park facilities were constructed starting in 2009. The soccer and football fields opened in summer 2010, and the community center opened three years later in October 2013. By 2015, the soccer and football fields and the community center were the only parts of the park that had been built. The construction of these two facilities cost $25.8 million, in addition to the $150 million cost of acquiring the land under these facilities. The rest of the proposed parkland that had already been purchased lay unused and was used as an illegal dumping space, while negotiations to purchase the rest of the park's land progressed. That December, the city allocated $4.6 million toward the cleanup of the Bushwick Inlet site for future conversion to parkland. and residents petitioned for the park to be completed. but he ultimately acquiesced and made plans to purchase the remaining parcels after protests from activists. The city announced in 2015 that it had made tentative agreement with Bayside Fuel to purchase its parcel. In March 2016, the city bought the Bayside Fuel plot for $53 million. De Blasio stated that he would not allow the land to be rezoned for residential use. Meanwhile, negotiations with CitiStorage's owner Brodsky continued for over a year after the warehouse burned down. New York City Council members
Joe Lentol and
Steve Levin, who respectively represented Williamsburg and Greenpoint, acted as mediators between the city and Brodsky, who could not agree upon a final sale price. In July 2016, activists including U.S. representative Maloney held a "sleep-in" protest on the site of the CitiStorage lot, in an effort to convince the city into purchasing the CitiStorage land. Activists continued to hold protests and rallies to draw government officials' attention to the park proposal. In addition to the sleep-in protest, they also organized in kayaks and canoes, and held a mock funeral for the park. Ultimately, the New York City government had spent $350 million on land acquisition for Bushwick Inlet Park, excluding the $25.8 million spent on developing the soccer and football fields and the community center.
Completion of park In 2016, a proposal for the ten Bayside Oil tanks on the site, entitled "Maker Park", was unveiled. The Maker Park plan would convert the oil tankers into attractions such as a theater and hanging gardens. It directly conflicted with the original plan for Bushwick Inlet Park, which would see the tankers demolished. In October 2017, the city allocated $17.5 million to develop the rest of Bushwick Inlet Park. The Bushwick Inlet Popup Park, a temporary public space between North 11th and North 12th Streets, opened in May 2018 and operated during the summer. The pop-up park consisted of a lawn. The permanent replacement for the popup opened on weekends starting in April 2022, and it began operating on weekdays in June 2022. In mid-2020, Brooklyn Community Board 1 approved Abel Bainnson Butz's design for parkland along the inlet. This plot occupies the former Motiva site on Kent Avenue between Quay and North 14th Streets. A previous design for that site had been declined because it had included too many paths. By January 2021, the Motiva plot was still in planning, but construction was proposed to start later in 2021. At the end of that year, the city government announced it would spend $75 million to demolish the CitiStorage warehouse and construct the park's next phase on that site. NYC Parks began redeveloping the Motiva site in March 2024, The Motiva site was expected to cost $9.8 million to redevelop. When complete, it would include a beach, boulders, bike lanes, and paths. Work on clearing the CitiStorage site began in mid-2024. Meanwhile, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owned a parcel abutting the northern end of the park, selected a developer to construct two skyscrapers on the site in 2025. This prompted local residents to ask that the parcel instead be added to Bushwick Inlet Park. ==Description==