gowanus canal

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The Gowanus Canal is a 100-foot wide,1.8-mile long canal located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Connected to Gowanus Bay in Upper New York Bay, the canal borders several residential neighborhoods including Gowanus, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Red Hook. The adjacent waterfront is primarily commercial and industrial, currently consisting of concrete plants, warehouses, and parking lots. There are five east-west bridge crossings over the canal, located at Union Street, Carroll Street, Third Street, Ninth Street, and Hamilton Avenue. The Gowanus Expressway and the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway, an aboveground section of the original Independent Subway System, pass overhead. The Gowanus Canal was built to allow access for industrial needs by bulkheading and dredging a tidal creek and wetland that had previously been fished for oysters. After its completion in the 1860s, the canal quickly became one of the nationâ€™s busiest industrial waterways, home to heavy industry including gas works (i.e., manufactured gas plants), coal yards, cement makers, soap makers, tanneries, paint and ink factories, machine shops, chemical plants, and oil refineries. It was also the repository of untreated industrial wastes, raw sewage, and surface water runoff for decades, causing it to become one of New Yorkâ€™s most polluted waterways. Although much of the industrial activity along the canal has stopped, high contaminant levels remain in the sediments. Despite the ongoing pollution problems, some city dwellers currently use the Gowanus Canal for recreational purposes, such as canoeing and diving, while others catch fish for consumption. The canal is part of the New York-New Jersey Estuary, which the EPA has designated an Estuary of National Significance