City Island occupies a flat mile-long island in the middle of the Susquehanna River, connected to the west bank of Harrisburg by a short pedestrian and vehicle bridge. It has an unusual combination of uses that works surprisingly well: a minor league baseball stadium (home of the Harrisburg Senators), a sandy beach, a miniature steam railroad, mini-golf, and a wide riverside trail that loops the entire island. On game days in summer it is lively; on other days it is a pleasant place to walk the river perimeter.
The views back at Harrisburg's city skyline from the island's eastern shore are the best available, and at dusk when the Capitol dome catches the light, they are genuinely good. The river is wide here — a long way across to the Cumberland County shore on the other side. In spring and fall, Canada geese and migratory waterfowl rest on the island in large numbers, which is its own kind of spectacle.