Turning Landfill into Landscape

James L. Russell visits the site and looks at the plans, designed in part by James Corner Field Operations, the firm that worked most famously on The High Line. Work has begun on the project, particularly on turning the giant mounds of trash into safe parkland:

"Though a small part will open in 2011, the completion of the park, part of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, may be 30 years away.

Giant dump trucks rumble across an inlet at what will become The Confluence, with restaurants, picnic piers, sports fields, a kayak launch and floating barges turned to gardens."

Russell finds that a great deal of this site is actually wild and unpolluted, filled with birds and clean water.