Best of New York 2009 • Kids

• Brooklyn Bridge Park

  Main St. at Plymouth St., Dumbo

  Parental warning: You might be able to keep your eyes on your child as she tumbles around Brooklyn Bridge Park’s fantastic, nautical-themed playground, but you will not be able to keep that child clean. Just check out those toddlers commando-crawling out of the hull-shaped sandbox with mud all over their chests. Or the platoon of 5-year-olds sprinting through what may be the city’s tallest-spraying sprinklers and testing out climbing maneuvers on the pirate-ship-shaped obstacle course of ladders and slides. Then again, parents are usually too busy admiring the postcard views across the East River to get overprotective. But when their services are finally called upon, there are bathrooms and kiddie food nearby at Bubby’s and Front Street Pizza. Bring a change of clothes.

From the 2009 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine