Aerial: NYCDEP 1990, Sewage: Tom Giebel 2010
Manhattan
Manhattan
Historic Landfilled Tidal Marsh
The Canal Gowanus Watershed Gowanus Lego: Christoph Niemann 2008
“Sludgie” Superfund mascot: Anna Martin 2009
A Visual History of Canal the Gowanus Canal
4000 YEARS OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT, changing its landscape from a rich ecologically diverse tidal marsh to an industrial polluted Canal
Can the past have answers for the future? Aerial Photos courtesy of Google Maps and Bing Aerials circa 2009 (?) 1766 Ratzer Map
5 major Human Technology Phases Define Gowanus landscapes
Pre 1600 :
Agricultural
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES, INCLUDING LUMBER
1650 - 1800: Tidal MECHANICAL TIDAL DAMS CAPTURE WATER ENERGY TO GRIND GRAIN
1800 - 1950: Fossil - Coal ERIE CANAL & STEAM BOAT NEED WATERFRONT LOTS
1950 - 2000: Fossil - Oil NEW MOTORS: FROM WATER TO THE ROADS AND AIR
1950 – 2000: Digital Data 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
30,000 BC
Global Warming allows Humans to reach America through Alaska
2011, Bering Glacier, NASA
30,000 BC – A MAJOR SPECIES SHIFT DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING
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
FACEBOOK CONNECTIONS + WORLD POPULATION DENSITY 2010
WHERE DO HUMANS LIKE TO LIVE ? SHORELINES
Because of larger brains, and capability to adapt quickly, Humans thrive on Environmental Change and Disturbed Environments
Humans thrive on Environmental Change
Humans thrive on Environmental Edges
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 CHEAP LAND !
4,000 BC – First Humans checkout the Gowanus Creek Area.
www.welikia.org
www.oasisnyc.net
Period of Climate Stability allows North American Woodlands to develop
GOWANUS
4,000 BC to 1600’s
Lenape Woman, Bryant White, www.bbwhite.com, 2007
Native American Settlements emerge
1766 Ratzer Map, New York Public Library
Gowanus Tidal Estuary provided rich hunting and fishing grounds
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
1640
Brouwers Mill, later called Freekes Mill, 1867 Mc Closkey’s Manual on Brooklyn History
Gowanus landscape shaped by Glaciers: the “Cobble Hills” that define early settlement and networks More trees are cut down, Tidal dams are built.
BECAUSE HUMANS ARE 75% WATER, HISTORY LARGELY DETERMINED BY HYDROLOGY Gowanus Tidal water was too salty to drink, Settlers chose sites next NATURAL FRESH WATER SPRINGS. SPRINGS DETERMINED WHERE OLDEST SETTLEMENT CORES ARE
REMNANT OF DENTON’S POND, 2011
POTENTIAL HISTORIC SPRING SITE
3rd Ave & 3rd Street photo of Whole Foods site contaminated soil excavation pits showing brief reappearance of historic Denton Mills Pond: 2007 Bob Gusskind
Native American Settlements Decimated by European Contact and Contagion
www.welikia.org
Englishman’s Foot
1645:
European settlement starts in the Gowanus ADAM’S STOPS 1
3
GERMANY
GOWANUS
BRAZIL
2
GUNS, GERMS & STEEL
GOVERNOR KIEFT INDIAN MASSACRES, 1643
Adam Brouwer (1620-1690) mercenary, skull bowler, Gowanus miller
GRAFFITI SKULL, UNION & BOND ST, 2006
GOWANUS TIDAL MILLS
Map: Bernard Ratzer,1766
Painting: Alonzo Chappel, Battle of Long Island, 1858
1858, Alonzo Chappel, The Battle of Long Island, Retreat of the Americans Under General Stirling Across Gowanus Creek
(FURTHER) CONFLICTS OVER RESOURCE CONTROL
27 August 1776 – Battle of Brooklyn
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.� The Battle of Brooklyn, John J. Gallagher, 1995
1824 "Notes Geographical and Historical relating to the town of Brooklyn, in Kings County on Long Island" Gabriel Furman
www.whatwasthere.com 2011
Battle of Brooklyn Site Google Street View
1776
Battle of Brooklyn Site Approximate Location
Aero Service Aerials, 1951
LANDFILLED DURING 1960’S BY TRUCKS COMING AT NIGHT FEDERAL CLEANUP INVESTIGATION FOUND TOXIC LEVELS OF MERCURY
Above: 1951 Aerial with Boats Below: 2011 View of Filled Basin
WILL NEED EXCAVATION
WHAT SHOULD THIS SITE BECOME ?
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.
Alonzo Chappel, Battle of Long Island, 1858, viewed from what is now the Carroll Street Bridge
APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF THE FIRST STREET BASIN
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
New York City Department of City Planning, 1998
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
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 :
Regional Plan Association, Waste Management Plan, 1967
1815 Steam Boat 1825 Erie Canal
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
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
Brooklyn Public Library, via Kevin Clarke, NYCDEP
As stream diverted to sewers, no longer enough water to flush Gowanus Creek by tides alone. Engineering Measures needed to Solve Problem
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)
Brooklyn Public Library, Brownstoner Blog
2011, Pardon Me For Asking blog, via reader
BECAUSE OF BAD PLANNING EVEN BRIDGES FLOOD SEPTEMBER 2011, 3RD STREET BRIDGE & GOWANUS CANAL
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…
POTENTIAL STREAM OUTFLOW SITE 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)
ECOLOGICAL (HISTORICAL) WATER CYCLE
URBAN WATER CYCLE
EVAPORATION IT RAINS
IT RAINS CONDENSATION
SOME WATER GOES INTO PIPE
WATER GOES INTO PIPE
WHAT WE WANT 2011, Lukas Kronawitter, Terreform One, Water Sensitive Urban Design for the Gowanus Canal
INFILTRATION & HISTORIC STREAM RESTORATION
2011L Nerina Penzhorn, Long After We’re Gone http://vimeo.com/23532919
Heron photo: 2007 Bob Gusskind
2011, Adam Katzman
CONSERVANCY 2ND AVE BIOSWALE
1924 Citizens Gas Works MGP Site (Public Place)
1924 Fulton Gas Works MGP Site (Thomas Greene Park) 1924, SPEED GIS, Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation
The Gas Light Era 1924 Metropolitan Gas Works MGP Site (Lowes)
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 1855
Gowanus Canal Construction Starts 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: 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 10,000,000
Temperature Difference: 4 degrees celsius 6 degrees celsius 8 degrees celsius 10 degrees celsius
(Oke, 1973)
Cities are 6 degrees forests warmer than forests
1912 窶的rish & German Shops at 4th Avenue and Bergen Street
1915, Charles Spero, via Leslie-Arlette Boyce & Brian Merlis’ book – The Glory of Brooklyn’s Gowanus, 2011
1915 –Greg Chapel Italian Social Club on 4th Avenue & Sackett Street
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
1920s – Fred Goat Machine Shop at 314 Dean Street & 3rd Ave (now next to NYC Resistor & Makerbot 3d Printers)
1911 Flushing Tunnel built to help “flush out� raw sewage and industrial effluents
1947 snow dumping at Butler street
Brooklyn Public Library
Water System continues getting treated as Garbage Can & Toilet
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
1900’s to 1970’s
Brooklyn Public Library
1950 – Gowanus Canal – Police Dredging for Bodies
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
1998 Gowanus Body
1933 Gangster Chart 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 Shipping 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 -
THE NEW ERA
Digital Data High Value & Craft Industry 2011, Angel Franco, New York Times
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
2011, Angel Franco, New York Times
2011, Angel Franco, New York Times
LAND (non naturale) naturale)
2009, Eymund Diegel, Potential Extent of Superfund Area, based on Culligan Columbia Sanborn Study
2011, John Shapiro
TOXICS CLEANUP
WASTE RECYCLING
Superfund will spend up to 500 million dollars over a decade or more
Export tons per year to China and India
2011 - THE 2 LARGEST INDUSTRIES LEFT ON THE 1776 GOWANUS CANAL ARE NOW BASED ON HUMAN WASTE
1999
Flushing Tunnel reactivated Gowanus Dredgers founded
2000 2007
Vacant Lots attract Developers Gowanus Community Plan Gowanus Canal Conservancy founded NYC Gowanus Rezoning Plan initiated
2009 2011
Flushing Tunnel shut down $ 500 million Superfund Cleanup program begins
2012
$ 175 million Flushing Tunnel Reactivated Bond Lorraine Sewer Rebuilt Gowanus Green Housing Built ? Superfund Cleanup completed
2013 2014 2022
Nat Fein, 1947, Central Park
GOWANUS STAKEHOLDERS
COMMUNITY PLANNERS
DESIGNERS
Exploring Ideas for the Future of the Gowanus 2011 Lowline Competition www.gowanuslowline.org
Red Point Park Jacques Abelman Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sea Level Rise Engineering Solutions ?
Raising Briggs House, Chicago Historical Society, 1855
1858 – The City of Chicago raised 6 feet to solve a sewage problem What are solutions for Gowanus ?
Historical Maps from the Hall of the Gowanus
ARTISTS & POETS
1766
1639
1782
1836
1837
1844
1924
Proteus Gowanus acts as an interpreter of culture and place, deepening the community’s sense of context and connection
Scientific Samples & Data as Art
Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking, 2011
The Star of the Gowanus
Superfund Manager Tsiamis
Bringing Memory Back to Space
Bess Adler, Brooklyn Paper, June 2011
Community Happenings
Education & Outreach
Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery & Reading Room www.proteusgowanus.org
Artists now Colonizing Space and removing pollution of neglect
Anne Percoco , 2011
ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS
SHORELINE ALTERATIONS
ART IN ODD PLACES
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
BERGEN CREEK / BATTLE BRIDGE
Map: Susannah Drake, dlandstudio, 2010
PUBLIC PLACE PARK
SECOND STREET SPONGE PARK
SECOND AVE BIOSWALE BIOSWALE
www.gowanuscanalconservancy.org
ENVIRONMENTALISTS BROUWERS BROUWERS BROOK / DEGRAW ST BIO SWALE FIRST STREET BASIN RESTORATION WHOLE FOODS PARK FOURTH STREET BASIN RESTORATION
OIL POLLUTION
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy
27 March 2011 Grassroots Mapping Kite Aerial
SECOND AVE STREET END SITE AERIAL SHOWING ILLEGAL MOTOR OIL SPILLS
Making the Canal fun while providing information about its water quality to the Community through free boats and education events
REACHING OUT
Come on down !
BOATERS WHEN IT SUCKS, ADVERTISE IT
The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club www.gowanuscanal.org
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
A 100% RUNOFF FREE PROPERTY IN THE GOWANUS WATERSHED :
Grass: Albrecht Durer, 1503
NATURE
Gogo the Gowanus Muskrat Mussels: Bob Gusskind, 2007
Muskrat: Adam Katzman, 2011
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
Jellyfish
Lion Mane Jellyfish, (Cyanea capillata) and Algae Gowanus Canal & 2nd Street Ava Chin, June 2010
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
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 ? Albizia julibrissin, (Silk Tree ) from Asia, via the Carribean, growing at Subway Art History Museum, Gowanus Canal, June 2011,
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