Waterplace Park and Riverwalk

Waterplace Park and Riverwalk Review

Romantic Venetian-style footbridges, cobblestone walkways, and an amphitheater encircling a tidal pond set the tone at this 4-acre tract. The Riverwalk passes the junction of three rivers—the Woonasquatucket, Providence, and Moshassuck—a nexus of the shipping trade during the city's early years that by the mid-20th century had been covered over with highways and parking lots. An urban-renewal project uncovered the buried rivers, rerouted them, and surrounded them with amenities for pedestrians rather than cars to create Waterplace Park, now a gathering place for free concerts in the summer. It's also the site of the popular WaterFire, a multimedia installation featuring music and nearly 100 burning braziers that rise from the water and are tended from boats; the dusk-to-midnight WaterFire show happens approximately 16 times a year and attracts nearly 1 million visitors annually. Four times a season, a popular open-air ballroom night has 3,000+ people dancing under the stars on the streets of Providence.