Sweeping Photo Banner Pays Tribute to the Builders of Tribeca's Pier 26

Photographs of contruction workers building Pier 26 are displayed on a fence that spans the esplanade between Piers 25 and 26. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Along a 196-foot-long fence adjacent to Tribeca’s popular Pier 26 [1] is a newly installed banner display of photographs featuring some of the dock builders, ironworkers, landscapers and others who built Hudson River Park’s newest pier. 

The photographs are from my two-year documentary project on the construction of the pier, with special access provided by the Hudson River Park Trust [2] and published [3] in the Trib as a video slideshow last September, when the pier opened (see below). As I wrote at the time, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph the complex construction of this unique pier park, including the remarkably engineered tide deck, the first of its kind river installation. 

The banner stretches along the busy esplanade between Piers 25 and 26, on a fence outside the site of what is slated to become a river study center and ecologically themed playground. Due to the pandemic, Pier 26’s official opening was a low-key, invitation-only event and the banner’s installation was delayed until this spring.

The 14 5-foot-high photos offer an unusual public tribute not only to the Pier 26 hardhats but, symbolically at least, to all those who help build the city with their hands, and are long forgotten after their work is done.

Carl Glassman is a photojournalist and the editor of The Tribeca Trib