Photos: Governors Island’s New Hills Welcome Visitors For the First Time

It’s a big day for Governors Island: The Hills, four manmade elevations that have been in the works for several years, officially opened to the public. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the morning, both city officials and members of the public clambered to the top of the 70-foot high Outlook Hill, with its sweeping views of Manhattan and New York Habor, and Slide Hill, which is home to the longest slide in all of New York City. Plus, after yesterday’s doom & gloom weather, visitors were rewarded with an utterly beautiful day.

But if you’re one of the sad souls who couldn’t make it (to be fair, getting to Governors Island in the middle of a weekday isn’t exactly easy), you can see what happened via the magic of social media. Unsurprisingly, the picturesque Hills—not to mention those views—are already total Instagram catnip, and we’ve culled some of the best photos from the day below.

Thanks to the day’s lovely weather, it was pretty crowded at the Island.

People were also ‘gramming plenty of photos of the Hills themselves. There’s Discovery Hill, which has a public art piece by Rachel Whitehead hidden on the side:

And Slide Hill, the name of which is fairly self-explanatory:

Some people used the Hills as a place to do parkour:

Others simply enjoyed the scenery on a beautiful summer day:

The Island will be open from sunrise to sunset tomorrow, giving more folks an opportunity to enjoy the Hills; more details are available on Governors Island’s website.

• On Governors Island, the World’s Smartest Hill [Curbed]
• A Sneak Peek at the Governors Island Hills [Curbed]