Photo: Friends of + POOL/Facebook

New York City Is Getting a Massive Public Pool That Floats in the East River

News
by Eben Diskin May 18, 2021

If there’s one thing we all need this summer but didn’t realize until just now, it’s a massive pool floating on a famous river. For New Yorkers, this is becoming a reality. +Pool is a giant float in the shape of a plus sign, and it’s slated to open on the East River. The project has been under development for a decade (a timeline on the site details just how much work has gone into the project), and an official location has just been secured to start building it.

According to +Pool’s website, the float is a “plus-shaped, water-filtering, floating swimming pool, designed to filter the very river that it floats in through the walls of the pool, making it possible for New Yorkers and its visitors to swim in clean river water. + Pool strives to reclaim the river as a recreational resource for the city, while educating the public about issues affecting our water quality.”

Rather than simply drifting on the river like your backyard pool float, this feat of engineering will use river water to fill its space. The filtration system will provide guests with more than 600,000 gallons of filtered water every day.

It hasn’t yet been announced when the float will hit the water — Curbed reports there are still some regulatory hurdles even though the site is secured — though many New Yorkers are hopeful they’ll be able to use it on the sooner side.

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