Ferries from East 90th St

East 90th Street is a landing with no building — a floating barge at the end of a walkway off the East River esplanade. It carries 207 active sailings, and the shortest of them reaches Queens in six minutes.

Where the boats go

• Astoria — about 6 minutes, 37 sailings.
• East 34th Street — about 14 minutes, 36 sailings.
• Soundview in the Bronx — about 19 minutes, 32 sailings.

All NYC Ferry.

Six minutes to Queens

Astoria is a short hop across the water and an awkward journey by subway — the N and W lines go the long way round through Manhattan. The ferry turns a forty-minute trip into six, and it does it 37 times, which is the clearest case for the route.

⚠ Hell Gate is not calm water

The stretch of the East River north of here, where it meets the Harlem River and Long Island Sound, has strong and complicated tidal currents. Service on this section is more weather-affected than the sheltered runs further south.

The name is not decorative.

Where the landing is

At the foot of East 90th Street, reached through Carl Schurz Park and along the esplanade above the FDR Drive. The nearest subway is the Q at 86th Street, a walk of about ten minutes.

Timing

Commuter-shaped, with weekend leisure traffic in summer. The last boats are earlier than the subway by a wide margin — this is not a way home from a late night.