The Gowanus Canal did not always look like what it looks like today. The Gowanus Creek was a tidal estuary flowing into the Gowanus Bay in the New York Harbor. At that time, the creek was surrounded by mostly farms and mills.

Despite the historical damage done to canal there are many efforts to restore the canal.

You have now reached your fifth stop. This site of new luxury residential and commercial building esplanade that is open to the public called sponge park. It is about 1,800 square feet surrounding the street end rain gardens along the banks of the Gowanus Canal. The sponge park helps to capture and

Thomas Green Park, which opened in 1935 and was originally named “Double D Park” for the side streets Douglass and Degraw. The park serves as one of the few recreational places and green spaces in the com-munity. This is why it holds an import-ant cultural value for residents.

As you walk towards Nevins St. and Degraw to the canal’s edge, where one of the proposed Combined Sewage Overflow Holding Tanks sites is located. New York Cities sewer systems are combined which means that the sewer systems capture both rain water and wastewater.

The Gowanus is a unique neighbor-hood in which you can observe the community undergoing a great deal of changes. This podwalk will help you to explore some of the Gowanus’ grey and green infrastructure, its history, culture and ecology. While you take this podwalk look at the contrasts between the old and new structure, and how they relate to sustainability.

You are also encouraged to explore and make your own observations. The following sections only give a brief description. Listen to the audio or see website for more in depth information.

Wyckoff Gardens is one of the two New York City Housing Authority buildings in the Gowanus neighbor-hood; the other being the Gowanus Houses. These buildings are homes for most of the lower income residents in the Gowanus. The income gap is also widening in the Gowanus neigh-borhood with residents either having very high income or very low income.

At the dead end you have reached the final stop. This is the second proposed site for the two combined sewage over-flow tanks. The Salt Lot also provides green space. This green space began with a collaborative effort between the Department of Sanitation of New York and Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

As you walk past the Whole Foods store look above to see the green-house on top of the building. The greenhouse is part of Gotham Greens, a New York City based business.

Walk through the Whole Foods park-ing lot and towards the edge of the water. Here you can see the sponge park along the edge.

The Union Street bridge is the fourth stop. As you look to the north you can see the NYCHA buildings that we mentioned at the start of the walk, the Gowanus Houses on the left and the Wyckoff Gardens on your right. Here you can also see one of the old oil and gas processing plants. It may not look like much now but this was a major point source of pollution in the canal in the past. Take note as the neighbor-hood starts to change here.

1 WYCKOFF GARDENS

EXPLOREGOWANUS

Self-Guided Tour

2 THOMAS GREEN PARK

3 CANAL EDGE DEGRAW ST7 THE SALT LOT

6 WHOLE FOODS

4 UNION ST BRIDGE

5 ESPLANADE 365 BOND ST

clean stormwater runoff from 2nd Street; this reduces combined sewage overflows into the canal. Also take note of the CSO point as you approach Carroll St Bridge.

gowanuscanalconservancy.org

#ExploreGowanus

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! Rain Gardens

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Planned CSO Holding Tanks

Sponge Park

NYC Parks

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