Technically, there is no major river that runs through the center of Brooklyn, but the borough is bordered by several significant bodies of water that are often referred to as rivers. To the west, Brooklyn is separated from Manhattan by the East River, which is technically not a river but a tidal strait connecting Upper New York Bay to the Long Island Sound. Along its northern border, the Newtown Creek (another tidal estuary) separates Brooklyn from Queens. In the southern part of the borough, the Gowanus Canal is a well-known man-made waterway that was once a tidal creek. While the Hudson River is the most famous river in the New York metropolitan area, it does not touch Brooklyn; it flows between Manhattan and New Jersey. The only "true" river nearby is the Bronx River, located entirely in the Bronx and Westchester. For Brooklynites, the "riverfront" almost exclusively refers to the East River, which provides the iconic backdrop for Brooklyn Bridge Park and the skyline views of Lower Manhattan.
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end.