A guide to the forgotten waterways hidden throughout the five boroughs Beneath the asphalt streets of Manhattan, creeks and streams once flowed freely. The remnants of these once-pristine waterways are all over the Big Apple, hidden in plain sight. Hidden Waters of New York City offers a glimpse at the big city’s forgotten past and ever-changing present, including: Minetta Brook, which ran through today's Greenwich Village Collect Pond in the Financial District, the city's first water source Newtown Creek, separating Brooklyn and Queens Bronx River, still a hotspot for urban canoeing and hiking Filled with eye-opening historical anecdotes and walking tours of all five boroughs, this is a side of New York City you’ve never seen.

Throw it in your backpack, hop on the subway, and explore.

This guide to more than 100 public campgrounds in the state of New York is perfect for tent and RV campers alike. Within each campground listing is vital information on location, road conditions, fees, reservations, available facilities, and recreational activities. The listings are organized by geographic area, and thorough site maps will simplify the search for the perfect campground. New York offers a surprising array of quiet, out-of-the-way parks replete with lakes, rivers, rugged hills, and even rocky cliffs. Camping New York provides useful tips on camping etiquette and enjoying—or avoiding—the state’s diverse and abundant wildlife. * Campground locations * Facilities and hookups * Fees and reservations * GPS coordinates for each campground * Recreational activities * What equipment and clothing to bring

How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict elevated railway into a grand--and beloved--open space The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior experience in planning and development collaborated with their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space. Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line became obsolete. By century's end it was a rusty, forbidding ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty. David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an opportunity to create a new way to experience their city. Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring book-- lavishly illustrated--they tell how they relied on skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg, the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now the High Line--a half-mile expanse of plants, paths, staircases, and framed vistas--runs through a transformed West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are possible when creative people work together for the common good.

New York comes alive in the pages of Wild New York. Author Charles Brumley and photographer Carl E. Heilman II traveled thousands of miles to give us this photographic portrait of the state’s diverse and unique natural areas. Our state has nearly every type of natural landscape found in the continental United States! New York is the majestic Niagara Falls and the sandy beaches of Long Island. It is the stunning, historic Hudson Valley and the massive inland seas of Lakes Erie and Ontario. It is the fragile acres of alpine flora above Adirondack tree line and the snowy skies of the Tug Hill Plateau. Wild New York is the natural beauty of our state; it is what we see, hear, and feel as we paddle the longest free-flowing river in the northeast, the Delaware River; hike the state’s highest peak, Mt. Marcy; or gaze across the steep gorge of Cattaraugus Creek in the underappreciated Zoar Valley. It is the call of the loon on countless lakes and ponds throughout Adirondack Park; the pounding of a powerful ocean surf on Long Island. It is that still, golden late-summer afternoon when you know the Empire State is where you’re meant to be.

The Encyclopedia of New York State is one of the most complete works on the Empire State to be published in a half-century. In nearly 2,000 pages and 4,000 signed entries, this single volume captures the impressive complexity of New York State as a historic crossroads of people and ideas, as a cradle of abolitionism and feminism, and as an apex of modern urban, suburban, and rural life. The Encyclopedia is packed with fascinating details from fields ranging from sociology and geography to history. Did you know that Manhattan's Lower East Side was once the most populated neighborhood in the world, but Hamilton County in the Adirondacks is the least densely populated county east of the Mississippi; New York is the only state to border both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean; the Erie Canal opened New York City to rich farmland upstate . . . and to the west. Entries by experts chronicle New York's varied areas, politics, and persuasions with a cornucopia of subjects from environmentalism to higher education to railroads, weaving the state's diverse regions and peoples into one idea of New York State. Lavishly illustrated with 500 photographs and figures, 120 maps, and 140 tables, the Encyclopedia is key to understanding the state's past, present, and future. It is a crucial reference for students, teachers, historians, and business people, for New Yorkers of all persuasions, and for anyone interested in finding out more about New York State.