Manhattan

Gowanus Watershed

The Canal

Historic Landfilled Tidal Marsh

Manhattan

A Visual History of the Gowanus Canal

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“Sludgie” Superfund mascot: Anna Martin 2009

Gowanus Lego: Christoph Niemann 2008

the Gowanus Canal

Aerial Photos courtesy of Google Maps and Bing Aerials circa 2009 (?) 1766 Ratzer Map

Can the past have answers for the future?

4000 YEARS OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT, changing its landscape from a rich ecologically diverse tidal marsh to an industrial polluted Canal

5 major Human Technology Phases Define Gowanus landscapes

Pre 1600 : Agricultural

1650 - 1800: Tidal

1800 - 1950: Fossil - Coal

1950 - 2000: Fossil - Oil

1950 – 2000: Digital Data

BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES, INCLUDING LUMBER

MECHANICAL TIDAL DAMS CAPTURE WATER ENERGY TO GRIND GRAIN

ERIE CANAL & STEAM BOAT NEED WATERFRONT LOTS

NEW MOTORS: FROM WATER TO THE ROADS AND AIR

HIGH SPEED DATA MAKES WATERFRONT WAREHOUSES OBSOLETE REPLACED BY CONTAINERIZATION, AND “JUST IN TIME” SHIPPING

Crossing Bering Straight, Origins Room, Museo de la Antropologia, Mexico

2011, Bering Glacier, NASA

30,000 BC Global Warming allows Humans to reach America through Alaska

1876, Ernst Haeckl, The History of Creation, Hypothetical Sketch of the Monophylitic Origin and The Extension of the 12 Races of Men from Lemuria across the Earth

New Access Corridors and Landscapes allow Human Migration

30,000 BC – A MAJOR SPECIES SHIFT DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING

Because of larger brains, and capability to adapt quickly, Humans thrive on Environmental Change and Disturbed Environments

WHERE DO HUMANS LIKE TO LIVE ? SHORELINES

FACEBOOK CONNECTIONS + WORLD POPULATION DENSITY 2010

Humans thrive on Environmental Edges

Humans thrive on Environmental Change

NASA view of Long Island City Lights circa 2000

4000 BC to +/- 1600 : The Native American & Agricultural Landscape

HUNTER GATHERING, LATER FARMING, BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES ARE EXPLOITED FOR FOOD, FUR, LUMBER, SHELTER

THE FUTURE GOWANUS CANAL

4,000 BC – First Humans checkout the Gowanus Creek Area.

CHEAP LAND !

www.welikia.org www.oasisnyc.net

Period of Climate Stability allows North American Woodlands to develop

GOWANUS

Lenape Woman, Bryant White, www.bbwhite.com, 2007

Native American Settlements emerge

4,000 BC to 1600’s

Gowanus Tidal Estuary provided rich hunting and fishing grounds

1766 Ratzer Map, New York Public Library

1635

Dutch Settlers start appropriating the rich Indian agricultural lands

A main industry is growing grain for local tidal mills and distilleries

"I was going by the house of Lubbertse, and saw many little hills in the way from the house to (Brower's) Mill along the neck and (when I) inquired what the hills were ... was answered that it was the Indian corn lands.”

Maritie Bevors, 84 years old, 1741 New Amsterdam Court Trial Proceedings, as quoted in "Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis", Reginald Bolton, 1922

Cristina Kelly “Maize Field” Bergen Street

1650 - 1800: The Colonial Agricultural & Tidal Landscape

TIDAL DAMS CAPTURE WATER ENERGY TO GRIND GRAIN, WATER TRAILS CUT THROUGH MARSHES TO CONNECT LOCAL AGRICULTURE TO THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

NC Wyeth, The Flutter Mill, in The Yearling, 1938

1766 Ratzer Map

Gowanus landscape shaped by Glaciers: the “Cobble Hills” that define early settlement and networks More trees are cut down, Tidal dams are built.

1640

Brouwers Mill, later called Freekes Mill, 1867 Mc Closkey’s Manual on Brooklyn History

POTENTIAL HISTORIC SPRING SITE

Gowanus Tidal water was too salty to drink, Settlers chose sites next NATURAL FRESH WATER SPRINGS.

BECAUSE HUMANS ARE 75% WATER, HISTORY LARGELY DETERMINED BY HYDROLOGY

SPRINGS DETERMINED WHERE OLDEST SETTLEMENT CORES ARE

REMNANT OF DENTON’S POND, 2011

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1645: European settlement starts in the Gowanus

Adam Brouwer (1620-1690) mercenary, skull bowler, Gowanus miller

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GERMANY

BRAZIL

GOWANUS

GOVERNOR KIEFT INDIAN MASSACRES, 1643

GRAFFITI SKULL, UNION & BOND ST, 2006

GUNS, GERMS & STEEL

GOWANUS TIDAL MILLS Map: Bernard Ratzer,1766 Painting: Alonzo Chappel, Battle of Long Island, 1858

27 August 1776 – Battle of Brooklyn

(FURTHER) CONFLICTS OVER RESOURCE CONTROL

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27 August 1776 – Battle of Brooklyn

Where did the Bodies End Up ?

“Provincials Drowned Here..”

1777 London’s Gentleman’s Map

After the battle was over, the two British officers were buried in a field, near where they fell, and their graves fenced in fenced in with some posts and rails, where their remains still rest.

But for an "example to the rebels," they refused the American rifleman the rites of sepulture; and his remains were exposed on the ground, till his flesh rotted, and torn off his bones by the fowls of the air. After a considerable length of time, in a heavy gale of wind, a large tree was uprooted; in the cavity formed by which, some friends of the Americans (...) placed the brave soldier's bones to mingle in peace with their kindred earth.”

1824 "Notes Geographical and Historical relating to the town of Brooklyn, in Kings County on Long Island" Gabriel Furman The Battle of Brooklyn, John J. Gallagher, 1995

2011 Battle of Brooklyn Site Google Street View

www.whatwasthere.com

1776 Battle of Brooklyn Site Approximate Location

LANDFILLED DURING 1960’S BY TRUCKS COMING AT NIGHT

FEDERAL CLEANUP INVESTIGATION FOUND TOXIC LEVELS OF MERCURY

WILL NEED EXCAVATION

WHAT SHOULD THIS SITE BECOME ?

Above: 1951 Aerial with Boats Below: 2011 View of Filled Basin

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Alonzo Chappel, Battle of Long Island, 1858, viewed from what is now the Carroll Street Bridge

APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF THE FIRST STREET BASIN

IF SUPERFUND WERE TO EXCAVATE THE MERCURY CONTAMINATED FIRST STREET BASIN LANDFILL, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ?

1) DEP WETLAND fed by rainwater from the Carroll Street Storm Sewer project.

2) BOAT HOUSE & ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER with a restored water mill children’s play park.

3) PARKING LOT for the new Africa Israel condominium project, with tax payer funding for seized public land.

4) NOTHING. We like the landfill just the way it is.

1766 stream overlay

COULD THIS SPRING STILL BE RUNNING ?

Map: Susannah Drake, dlandstudio, 2010 Overlays do not necessarily reflect dland’s original design, and are for community discussion purposes only

IF SEA LEVELS RISE, SHOULD WE JUST BUILD CITY HIGHER ?

OR

SHOULD WE REBUILD IT LOWER TO DISSIPATE ITS IMPACT – RECREATE THE NATURAL LAYERS OF SHORELINES ?

Painting: Alonzo Chappel, Battle of Long Island, 1858

1625 to 2011: Urban Settlement Core that grows outwards based on water dependent Dutch settlement and early Indian trails

Lenape Canoes, Bryant White, www.bbwhite.com, 2007

New York City Department of City Planning, 1998

1800 - 1940: The Fossil Fuel Landscape – Stage 1: Coal FOSSILIZED BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES ARE CONVERTED TO ENERGY MACHINES REPLACE THE HAND

THE ERIE CANAL CREATES ACESS TO CHEAP PENNSYLVANNIA MINES & STEAM ENGINE BOATS CREATE DEMAND FOR WATERFRONT LOTS

1930’s view of Metropolitan Manufactured Gas Plant & the Steam and Smoke of Industry

1800’s Onward :

City allows Speculators to claim wetlands and underwater lots if they fill them in, typically with garbage, soils from hills and excavations & industrial wastes: The Era of Waterfront Industry begins 1815 Steam Boat

1825 Erie Canal

Regional Plan Association, Waste Management Plan, 1967

DEVELOPMENT 1840s – 1860s the creek is converted into a 1.8 mile long canal

1849 2004, USACE Cultaral Resources Assessment for the Gowanus Canal, Hunter Research, Raber Associates, Northe Eastern Ecological Associates

1879, Currier & Ives

As stream diverted to sewers, no longer enough water to flush Gowanus Creek by tides alone.

Engineering Measures needed to Solve Problem

Brooklyn Public Library, via Kevin Clarke, NYCDEP

STORM SURGE MAP

As the Landscape is hardened and the natural stream and pond structures are destroyed, Water flows speed up. Flooding becomes a common problem.

GLOBAL WARMING IMPACT : the “100-year” flood will be the “50-year” (more frequent floods, in a larger area)

GLOBAL WARMING IMPACT : the “100-year” flood

Brooklyn Public Library, Brownstoner Blog

BECAUSE OF BAD PLANNING EVEN BRIDGES FLOOD SEPTEMBER 2011, 3RD STREET BRIDGE & GOWANUS CANAL

2011, Pardon Me For Asking blog, via reader

RECONSTRUCTING THE PATH OF THE GOWANUS WATERSHED’S HISTORIC STREAM…

How can we get rainwater out of the sewers and back into the historical stream system ? We need more research…

ArcHydro Gowanus Watershed Flow Map by Eymund Diegel, 2010, based on a 2004 Digital Elevation Model.

The blue lines represent the way rainwater would flow if their were no buildings or street drains. Though hypothetical, the flow directions gives clues to the path of historic stream beds, major street regradings, and potential underground aquifer flows.

The blue blobs represent “sinks” or pools in the contours where rainwater would tend to pond. These all represent “opportunity sites” for Green Infrastructure to improve the Canal’s water quality.

I have found this model accurately depicts why my neighbor’s basement floods on Sackett Street (the old Bergen Creek watercourse)

POTENTIAL STREAM OUTFLOW SITE

ECOLOGICAL (HISTORICAL) WATER CYCLE

URBAN WATER CYCLE

IT RAINS

WATER GOES INTO PIPE

CONDENSATION

EVAPORATION

INFILTRATION & HISTORIC STREAM RESTORATION

IT RAINS

SOME WATER GOES INTO PIPE

WHAT WE WANT 2011, Lukas Kronawitter, Terreform One, Water Sensitive Urban Design for the Gowanus Canal

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CONSERVANCY 2ND AVE BIOSWALE 2011, Adam Katzman

1924 Metropolitan Gas Works MGP Site (Lowes)

1924 Citizens Gas Works MGP Site (Public Place)

1924 Fulton Gas Works MGP Site (Thomas Greene Park)

The Gas Light Era

1924, SPEED GIS, Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation

1922 Public Place Citizens Gas Works MGP Site showing Water outflows, probably from coal washing

1922, National Grid Archives

1910 Brooklyn Rapid Transit Powerhouse consumes mountains of coal and canal water for steam generators. Closed when Canal water became too silted and polluted to use for steam in 1938

This Trolley Powerhouse gave the Brooklyn “Trolley” Dodgers their name Impact: PCB’s, Air Pollution (Acid Rain)

1910, Thomas E. Murray, Power Stations book - via Robert Lobenstein

2011 Brooklyn Rapid Transit Building Google Street View

1906 Brooklyn Rapid Transit Building Original Structure

1910,Dreitzker & Gerhard, Investigation of the Sanitary Conditions of the Gowanus Canal, MIT thesis

1906 looking north from Union Street Bridge, showing Lumber Yards and Fulton MGP Coal Docks

Wide range of Industrial Toxics Chemicals start being used 1910,Dreitzker & Gerhard, Investigation of the Sanitary Conditions of the Gowanus Canal, MIT thesis

1850-1900 Widespread Industrialization

1853 Gowanus Canal Construction Starts 1855  Irish Immigrants 86% Men are City Laborers 74% Women are Domestic Workers

1869  Canal Complete 2,740 New Buildings 20,000 Residents 30 Churches 100 Storehouses and factories

1880  30 Businesses 6,140 Vessels 896,016 Tons of Cargo

INDUSTRIAL HUB 1915 to 1950 - Gowanus is the nation’s busiest commercial canal

From John Shapiro’s Welcome to Gowanus presentation, Pratt Institute Center for Planning & the Environment, 2011

Population: Temperature Difference: 10,000 4 degrees celsius 100,000 6 degrees celsius 1,000,000 8 degrees celsius 10,000,000 10 degrees celsius

(Oke, 1973)

Cities are 6 degrees warmer than forests Cities are 6 degrees warmer than forestswarmer than forestswarmer than forestswarmer than forests

1912 –Irish & German Shops at 4th Avenue and Bergen Street

1915 –Greg Chapel Italian Social Club on 4th Avenue & Sackett Street

1915, Charles Spero, via Leslie-Arlette Boyce & Brian Merlis’ book – The Glory of Brooklyn’s Gowanus, 2011

1920s – Fred Goat Machine Shop at 314 Dean Street & 3rd Ave (now next to NYC Resistor & Makerbot 3d Printers)

1900’s - Peak worker population – Port of Brooklyn has 25,000 Annual Vessel Trips

From Leslie-Arlette Boyce & Brian Merlis’ book – The Glory of Brooklyn’s Gowanus, 2011

Water System continues getting treated as Garbage Can & Toilet 1947 snow dumping at Butler street

1911 Flushing Tunnel built to help “flush out” raw sewage and industrial effluents

Brooklyn Public Library

1900-1930 Peak of the Canal

1892 Butler Storm Sewer built to flush Canal pollution, but fails

1900 60 Businesses, 25,000 Vessels

1910  Henry Ford begins manufacturing the automobile 200,000 Italians enter USA annually

1916  New York City Passes Zoning Resolution

1929 Black Tuesday

1950 – Gowanus Canal – Police Dredging for Bodies 1998 Gowanus Body

Crime & the Gowanus Exaggerated reputation – Only received a body and a half a year during it’s more turbulent decades. Best Place to dump a body is Jamaica Bay and Pelham Bay Park

1919 PROHIBITION MADE WATERFRONT IDEAL SPOT FOR SMUGGLING BOOZE – LEADING TO CRIME SYNDICATES

1933 Gangster Chart

1900’s to 1970’s

Brooklyn Public Library

Corbis Archives

CAN HUMAN DESTINY BE CHANGED BY ALTERING OUR ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH COMMUNITY ACTION?

1930 Study by New York City Housing Authority Study to look at the correlation between crime and lack of social services

Herge, Tintin in America 1937

1940 - 2000: The Fossil Fuel Landscape Stage 2 : Oil EVEN MORE DIFFICULT TO REACH FOSSILIZED BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES ARE CONVERTED TO ENERGY

NEW MOTORS MOVE TRANSPORT FROM WATER TO THE ROADS

CONTAINERIZATION MAKES WATERFRONT WAREHOUSE OBSOLETE

Bayside Fuel Depot, Smith & 9th Street, 2007

2007, Frank H. Jump

1950’S - The Oil Era

2011, Yuki Kokubo

1930-1970 Decline of Canal Industry

1929-1941 Depression

1949 Gowanus Houses Built

1960 20 businesses

1970 Port of NY Moves to NJ 9 businesses on Canal 85 % decline from Peak

Gowanus no longer competitive for Containerized Shipping Gowanus no longer competitive for Containerized Shipping

Pollution continues: Moves from Water to Air

2009 Air Pollution

the brown stuff makes you cough

2009 New York City Community Air Survey

1960s Community Activists get Sewage Plant built to divert raw sewage from Gowanus Canal

1969 Flushing Tunnel breaks

1978  Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation founded

1997  Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment gives Gowanus tours

2011 -

Digital Data High Value & Craft Industry

1950 – 2000: The Digital World HIGH SPEED DATA MAKES WATERFRONT WAREHOUSES OBSOLETE

REPLACED BY CONTAINERIZATION, AND “JUST IN TIME” SHIPPING & MANUFACTURING

HANDMADE GOODS MAKE A COME BACK, GOWANUS BECOMES A LOCAVORE DESTINATION

Makerbot 3d Printing Robot Workshop on 3rd Avenue

THE NEW ERA

2011, Angel Franco, New York Times

2011, Angel Franco, New York Times

2011, Angel Franco, New York Times

LAND (non naturale)

1776 2011 - THE 2 LARGEST INDUSTRIES LEFT ON THE GOWANUS CANAL ARE NOW BASED ON HUMAN WASTE

WASTE RECYCLING Export tons per year to China and India

TOXICS CLEANUP Superfund will spend up to 500 million dollars over a decade or more

LAND (non naturale)

2009, Eymund Diegel, Potential Extent of Superfund Area, based on Culligan Columbia Sanborn Study 2011, John Shapiro

1999  Flushing Tunnel reactivated Gowanus Dredgers founded

2000 Vacant Lots attract Developers 2007 Gowanus Community Plan Gowanus Canal Conservancy founded NYC Gowanus Rezoning Plan initiated

2009 Flushing Tunnel shut down 2011  $ 500 million Superfund Cleanup program begins

2012  $ 175 million Flushing Tunnel Reactivated 2013  Bond Lorraine Sewer Rebuilt 2014  Gowanus Green Housing Built ? 2022 Superfund Cleanup completed

Nat Fein, 1947, Central Park

GOWANUS STAKEHOLDERS

COMMUNITY PLANNERS

2011 Lowline Competition

www.gowanuslowline.org

Red Point Park

Jacques Abelman Amsterdam, Netherlands

Exploring Ideas for the Future of the Gowanus

DESIGNERS

1858 – The City of Chicago raised 6 feet to solve a sewage problem What are solutions for Gowanus ?

Raising Briggs House, Chicago Historical Society, 1855

Sea Level Rise Engineering Solutions ?

Proteus Gowanus

Historical Maps from the Hall of the Gowanus

Community Happenings

Education & Outreach

Proteus Gowanus acts as an interpreter of culture and place, deepening the community’s sense of context and connection

1639 1782 1836 1837 1844

Bringing Memory Back to Space

Bess Adler, Brooklyn Paper, June 2011 www.proteusgowanus.org

Interdisciplinary Gallery & Reading Room

Scientific Samples & Data as Art

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The Star of the Gowanus

ARTISTS & POETS

ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS SHORELINE ALTERATIONS

Artists now Colonizing Space and removing pollution of neglect

ART IN ODD PLACES

Anne Percoco , 2011

ARTSY RECREATION

GOWANUS is a Naturally Occurring Art District

From John Shapiro’s Welcome to Gowanus presentation, Pratt Institute Center for Planning & the Environment, 2011

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy

Map: Susannah Drake, dlandstudio, 2010

FIRST STREET BASIN RESTORATION

BROUWERS BROOK / DEGRAW ST BIO SWALE

BERGEN CREEK / BATTLE BRIDGE

PUBLIC PLACE PARK

SECOND AVE BIOSWALE

FOURTH STREET BASIN RESTORATION

SECOND STREET SPONGE PARK

WHOLE FOODS PARK

BIOSWALE

BROUWERS

OIL POLLUTION

www.gowanuscanalconservancy.org

ENVIRONMENTALISTS

SECOND AVE STREET END SITE AERIAL SHOWING ILLEGAL MOTOR OIL SPILLS

27 March 2011 Grassroots Mapping Kite Aerial

The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club

Making the Canal fun while providing information about its water quality to the Community through free boats and education events

Come on down !

www.gowanuscanal.org

REACHING OUT

WHEN IT SUCKS, ADVERTISE IT

BOATERS

A MILLION GALLONS PER DAY OF SEWAGE GO INTO THE CANAL

WHAT ARE COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS ?

THEY KEEP SEWAGE FROM FLOODING YOUR BASEMENT & ALLOW TOILETS TO WORK DURING HEAVY STORMS

WHAT CAUSES SEWER OVERFLOWS INTO THE CANAL ?

RAIN WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT TO HELP FLUSH SEWERS

HUMANS HAVE HARDENED THEIR LANDSCAPES

SO NOW TOO MUCH RAIN GOES INTO SEWER SYSTEM

CURRENT “SEA LEVEL RISE” IS FROM RUNOFF, NOT MELTING GLACIERS GLOBAL WARMING WILL MAKE THE ABOVE EVEN WORSE IN FUTURE

SOLUTIONS ?

SLOW DOWN RAINWATER

DISCONNECT ROOF DRAIN FROM SEWER AND LET IT SOAK INTO GARDEN

REDUCE CONCRETE IN YOUR HOMES, SCHOOLS & PARKS

Grass: Albrecht Durer, 1503

YOUR HOMES, SCHOOLS

A 100% RUNOFF FREE PROPERTY IN THE GOWANUS WATERSHED :

NATURE

Gogo the Gowanus Muskrat Muskrat: Adam Katzman, 2011 Mussels: Bob Gusskind, 2007

Gowanda is famous in Japan

What would animal friendly planning look like ?

Racoon

(Procyon Lotor)

Part of a large family living in tunnels underneath the Bat Cave.

Wash their pizza crusts in the Gowanus Canal

Eymund Diegel, 9 October 2011

Lion Mane Jellyfish, (Cyanea capillata) and Algae Gowanus Canal & 2nd Street Ava Chin, June 2010

Jellyfish

1922 Citizens Gas Works Crib Bulkhead

WHAT WATER EDGE SUPPORTS LIFE ?

Gowanus Urban Ecology Changes What are Clues to Pollution & Climate Change Adaption by Plants?

Superfund Salad:

Gowanus Metallophyte Plants

have adapted to heavy metals in human environments

What is a “Native Tree” in a Globally Warmed City?

If our urban heat island climate has more in common with Mongolia than Vermont…

what plant types should we use to maximize carbon sequestration and city cooling ?

Paulownia tomentosa, (Chinese Empress Tree) growing on Smith Street, October 2011, Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking

Albizia julibrissin, (Silk Tree ) from Asia, via the Carribean, growing at Subway Art History Museum, Gowanus Canal, June 2011,

An Ecological Remnant of the Dutch Global Trade from the 1650’s

It is extremely fragrant

Should we use it to Smell Engineer the Canal ?

ADD MAGNOLIA

Magnolia grandiflora, (Southern Magnolia) growing at 439 Sackett Street near Bond Street, Gowanus Canal, June 2011,

What do we want for OUR city ?

What do YOU think the conversation should be about ?

eymund@gmail.com

This presentation available at www.proteusgowanus.org The Hall of the Gowanus archive