Pier 84<\/a> (located right off 12th Avenue near West 44th Street), opened three years ago after a restoration and renovation, is the largest public pier in Hudson River Park<\/a>, and it offers a bunch of everything for those who love the city\u2019s edges of water: a classroom and interpretive area; an interactive water play area with pumps and little canal gates; fishing; bike rental; water taxi stop; and more. The Circle Line boats are to the south and the Intrepid is to the north. The view west is the Hudson, an open sky, and the hills of New Jersey\u2019s urban places on the Palisades, as fine a place as any to watch the sun dip nightly. The view east is of Midtown\u2019s skyscrapers, a reflection of differing shadows and light as evening progresses.<\/p>\n Summer Sunset<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n On a warm, slightly muggy summer evening this week on Pier 84, this show is mine for not a cent. At the western end of the pier, the breeze cools, the Hudson\u2019s waves roll easily, and the shorebirds flap in the distance. A lone kayaker glides by, rhythmically paddling at one with the river. You have the feeling of water all around. Often when I look across the river here, I get the sense of a whole land out there, America spreading westward just beyond that hill of the Palisades. Here the sky is as open a place as anywhere in the city.<\/p>\n The steeple of a church in Weehawken, with a flag flying, stands out in the evening silhouette across the river. The sun becomes a huge orangish yellow-gold ball, bathed in pink hues, as it moves lower toward the horizon. To the north, the willowy outlines of the George Washington Bridge lie, with faint pink clouds and misty fog around the bridge. Along the river ply the boats, ferries, and barges. Still, all seems to move in slower motion, even the jets flying low above the western horizon. As the sun dips below the horizon line, it leaves a red glow around the trees atop the Palisides’ cliff.<\/p>\n
![\"Sunset,](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2555\/3729151669_16abb90252.jpg\")
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