A floating pool will debut on the East River next week just in time to cool down New Yorkers on hot summer days.

The Floating Pool at Brooklyn Bridge Park Beach [1] will open July 4 on a barge moored between Piers 4 and 5 on the Brooklyn waterfront. It will be open to the public, free of charge, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week through Labor Day. A free shuttle bus will carry swimmers from surrounding neighborhoods.

The 25-meter, seven-lane pool can fit 174 people. On the barge's steel decks is a spray pool for children. Translucent murals depict the history of marine life on the New York waterfront.

According to the New York Sun [2], the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Marianna Koval, [3] said of the pool: "To take a swimming lesson in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, it's pretty incredible." She also noted that the pool's opening would mark the first time in 200 years that residents could access the previously industrial area for recreation.

The floating pool is the brainchild of Ann Buttenwieser, an urban planner who described herself according to the New York Sun as "a big proponent of opening the waterfront for recreation."

Though the pool will be a novelty to today's swimmers, it is not unique in the city's history. According to Buttenwieser's research, at the turn of the 20th century there were 15 riverside pools.