Once a wasteland of scrap yards and abandoned industrial buildings, Waterfront Park is now a vibrant green space that welcomes over 2.2 million visitors each year.

[5] This development phase included the Great Lawn, Joe's Crab Shack, walking paths, and play areas.

The park hosted hundreds of events in its first full season of use, including outdoor concerts and other festivals, with an estimated total attendance of more than a million people.

[7] Phase III construction (2005–2012) Phase III construction began in late spring of 2005, to add 13 acres (53,000 m2) and include the conversion of the former Big Four Railroad bridge going between the park and Jeffersonville, Indiana's waterfront park into a pedestrian bridge.

Kentucky is pledged $12 million to replace the deck on the bridge and connect it to the spiral ramp that had been completed in Waterfront Park.

Phase IV land lies west of Louisville's principal wharf and harbor area at Fourth Street.

The new area will include creative play structures and various interactive displays featuring various artifacts to celebrate and teach the waterfront's history.

[10] Concept design for Playworks at Waterfront park was finalized in 2018, and construction is anticipated to be completed near the beginning of 2024.

[16] The Big Four Bridge crosses the Ohio River connecting Waterfront Park to Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Waterfront Park installed counters on the Louisville ramp in 2013, helping to calculate an average of 1.5 million pedestrians and bicycles that cross the bridge each year.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky, the family of Harry S. Frazier Jr., and the Kentucky Historical Society/Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission funded the memorial and selected nationally renowned Louisville artist Ed Hamilton to create both the Lincoln statue and the bas reliefs.

Four bas-reliefs (a type of sculpture carved from flat surrounding stone) illustrate Lincoln's ties to Kentucky.

[18] The traveling SkyStar Wheel made its debut on March 29, 2018, in the park for the 2018 Kentucky Derby, Thunder Over Louisville, and Waterfront Wednesday season opener.

However, I-64 was ultimately widened over the park as a part of the Ohio River Bridges Project, supported by the Mayor and most involved in city and interstate planning.

The Waterfront Development Corporation favored a $160 million proposal which could have as few as 10 pillars, and an aesthetically pleasing span design.

He initiated a plan that was dependent on the average park visitor's "lack of understanding about water's chemical makeup", and arranged for signs that read: "DANGER!

[22][23] As it is true that ordinary water molecules each contain two atoms of hydrogen, and thus posed no danger, it is considered one of many water-related hoaxes.