The Gowanus Canal

Believe the Hype ...

Canoeing & SuperfundTourism Map

DENTON MILL &THE BATTLE OFLONG ISLAND

THE HALL OF THE GOWANUSTHE HALL OF THE GOWANUS

STEAM PUNKSTEEL LUNGSSTEAM PUNKSTEEL LUNGS

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORSFRIENDLY NEIGHBORS

MUSIC ATGOWANUSGROVE

MUSIC ATGOWANUSGROVE

DRAFTBEER !DRAFTBEER !

THE EMPTYVESSEL PROJECTTHE EMPTYVESSEL PROJECT

THE BRIDGE TOAMERICA

GHOSTSTREAMS

THE BAT CAVE& KLEZMERDANCE HALL

THE SECOND STREET CANOE DOCK& SUPERFUNd SITE

A MEDIEVALSEWAGE SYSTEM& DIRTY POETRY

MAGICAL HIDDENWORLDS

MASSIVEMIGRATIONS TO MEXICO

THE HISTORYOF SLAVERYIN AN OYSTER

RAIN GARDENS& VIEWING STEPS

TRASH MONSTERS

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Fun Things to See and Imagine While Paddling Your Canoe along Brooklyn’s Coolest Superfund Site

CHINESETRANSPORTECOLOGY

IT ALL STARTS HERE !A HIP WAY TO LEARN ABOUT POLLUTION !A HIP WAY TO LEARN ABOUT POLLUTION !

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The Gowanus Canal is a historic industrial canal in the heart of the up and coming Gowanus neighborhood.Turn off your electronic worlds, and have a look around...

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THE SUBWAYART HISTORYPROJECT

THE SUBWAYART HISTORYPROJECT

THE OLD AMERICAN CAN FACTORY ARTISTS COLLECTIVE, ISSUE PROJECT ROOM & ROOFTOP FILMSTHE OLD AMERICAN CAN FACTORY ARTISTS COLLECTIVE, ISSUE PROJECT ROOM & ROOFTOP FILMS

SWIM WITHMUSKRATS !SWIM WITHMUSKRATS !

UNION STREET BRIDGE

UNION STREET BRIDGE

SACKETT STREET

SACKETT STREET

DEGRAW STREET

DEGRAW STREET

DOUGLASS STREET

DOUGLASS STREET BUTLER STREET

BUTLER STREET

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CARROLL STREET BRIDGE

CARROLL STREET BRIDGE

3RD STREET BRIDGE

3RD STREET BRIDGE

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2ND STREET

1ST STREET

1ST STREET

6TH STREET

6TH STREET

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3RD A

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9TH STREET

9TH STREET

F & G SUBWAY LINE BRIDGE

F & G SUBWAY LINE BRIDGE

SMITH & 9THSUBWAYSTATION

SMITH & 9THSUBWAYSTATION

METROPOLITANGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(LOWE’S)

METROPOLITANGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(LOWE’S)

CITIZENSGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(PUBLIC PLACE)

CITIZENSGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(PUBLIC PLACE)

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BROOKLYN QUEENS EXPRESSWAY

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FULTONGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(GREENE PLAYGROUND)

FULTONGAS PLANTCOAL TAR PLUME(GREENE PLAYGROUND)

DentonMills Brook

DentonMills Brook

VISIBLE AT LOW TIDE VISIBLE AT LOW TIDE

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCYSALT LOT RAIN GARDENS

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCYSALT LOT RAIN GARDENS

DISCOVER POPULAR DISPOSAL SITES !

DISCOVER POPULAR DISPOSAL SITES !

OUR HISTORIC SOURCEOF LIGHT AND TOXICS

OUR HISTORIC SOURCEOF LIGHT AND TOXICS

COLES MILL POND

COLES MILL POND

DENTONS MILL POND

DENTONS MILL POND

BROUWERS MILL POND

BROUWERS MILL POND

FLUSHING TUNNELPUMP STATION

FLUSHING TUNNELPUMP STATION

HISTORICGOWANUSBEACH &ORIGINALSHORELINE

HISTORICGOWANUSBEACH &ORIGINALSHORELINE

THEGOWANUS

CANAL

THEGOWANUS

CANAL

6TH ST BASIN 6TH ST BASIN

7TH ST BASIN 7TH ST BASIN

11TH ST BASIN 11TH ST BASIN

4TH ST BASIN 4TH ST BASIN

1ST ST BASIN 1ST ST BASIN

GowanusCreek

GowanusCreek

Vechte’sCreek(seasonal)

Vechte’sCreek(seasonal)

Brouwer’sBrook

Brouwer’sBrook

BergenCreek(outletnot yet found)

BergenCreek(outletnot yet found)

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to Subway (Union St)

to Subway (Union St)

to Subway (Carroll St)

to Subway (Carroll St)

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5TH STREET HOYT STREE

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It’s polluted - read all about it in the 2011 US Environmental ProtectionAgency’s Gowanus Superfund Report. So polluted, its worth the visit.

But it’s getting better, thanks to Federal, State, City and Communityefforts, and people like yourself who continue visiting the Canal. One ofthe best ways to reconnect with our water based history and gettingeducated about pollution is to do it by canoe.

Is it safe ? Are our delicious local draft beers bad for you ? Some doctorssay so. Here’s your chance to talk about relative risk. Compared toputting gas in your car, bleaching your laundry, eating junk food, andpuffing cigarettes while watching the latest TV Travel Channel feature onthe Gowanus - Hell - sunset canoeing exercise is good for you. But yeah,don't drink the water and please wear a life vest.

Below are some stories to look for as you paddle along Brooklyn’s ownRiver of Babylon to a cleaner future.

0 FIRST KNOWN LAWSUIT IN AMERICAin 1644, Adam Brouwer, a German mercenary is hired by theDutch West India Company to slaughter Indians. After beinginvolved in a scandal, under Governor Kieft, involving the useof Indian heads as bowling balls on Bowling Green, he movesto Gowanus and digs out the sandbar blocking local farmers’boat access to his tidal flour mill on Gowanus Creek, one ofthe first such mills in America. But he gets picky about who hewill grind grain for, hence the first known customer servicelawsuit in America. The location of that famous legal sand bar,is at what is now the Brooklyn Queens Expressway - thisshould be your signal to turn around your canoe, unless youare an experienced boater who can handle currents and waves.

The name “Gowanus” comes from the Indian Chief Gowan,who lived near at Bennet’s Cove (around 27th Street). Gowanin Algonquin means “Place of Lying Down”, or “the perfectplace to chill out”.

The Adam Brouwer’s Mill was on the site of what is now theProteus “Hall of the Gowanus” a mini museum of historicalmaps and digital archives at 543 Union Street.. It is rumoredthat at midnight in a canoe under the Union Street Bridge, youcan still hear the ghostly thud of skulls hitting bowling pins.

HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN AN OYSTERIn the 4th Street Basin, at low tide, clinging onto the steelbulwark, can be observed the last known descendent of theNicholas Vechte’s 1709 Oyster Farm, who built what becamethe now relocated Old Stone House. One of the main rea-sons for the original agricultural prosperity for the farms andoyster ponds around the Gowanus, was that in the 1650's to1750's the area supplied foodstuffs for slave economies of theCaribbean islands, including Bermuda. This was because thetropical soils of the islands were more profitable to farm forsugar cane, than food - but the slaves still had to be fed. TheGowanus was a "global" brand even then. Though the oystershave not been able to survive Gowanus pollution, look for themussels, about 2 feet below the high tide line. They each filter75 gallons a day of contaminated water.

CHINESE TRANSPORT ECOLOGYNear the Union Street Bridge, note the Empress Tree(Paulownia tomentosa, nicknamed “Queen of the Gowanus”).The trees growing out of the raw concrete of the Canal arethere because their seed pods were originally used like foampellets for packing porcelain in the China trade, and are

indicative of the global waves of commerce and transportecologies that have swept through the Gowanus. They alsowere the preferred wood for Chinese bridal dowry chests.

MASSIVE MIGRATIONS TO MEXICOBecause of Gowanus wind patterns, around September,Monarch butterflies swoop down from Park Slope and fol-low the Canal on their way to Mexico. They feed on Milkweed,(Asclepias syriaca ), now being actively replanted along theGowanus by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC).Because you may be donning a life vest soon, did you knowthat during World War 2, milkweed pods were used to makethe “Mae West” life Jacket. (you need 24 pods) If you surviveda plane crash in one, you became a member of the "GoldfishClub". Don’t worry, the canoes are very stable.

A MEDIEVAL SEWAGE SYSTEM & DIRTY POETRY A 150 years ago New York’s sewer system was designed withthe concept that rainwater could help flush out the sewer pipesto local rivers. With the 1977 Clean Water Act of it was decid-ed sewage plants were a good idea, but during that time thethe City’s fields and backyard gardens had become cementpatios and parking lots. Rainwater now overloaded the under-sized sewer pipes. That excess rain spills into the Canalthrough Combined Sewer Overflows or CSOs as dilutedsewage, averaging a million gallons a day, concentrated duringrain storms. This is where the “floatables” such as “ConeyIsland Whitefish” (used condoms) and “Fatbergs” (coagulatedrestaurant grease) come from. The sewage is the primaryhealth contaminant in the Canal, and will still be there after theSuperfund cleanup. The round balls you see on the a waterhold up pipes to oxygenate the water, until the Flushing Tunnelis reopened in 2014 to pump more fresh water into the Canal.The best time to view floatables is in rainy April, when theConey Island Whitefish migrate home to their spawninggrounds. February is the month with the cleanest water.

3 CSOs are worth visiting (see map) - RH 34, because you canget your canoe into the sewer tunnel, OH 007 because it con-tributes industrial pollutants from adjacent factories, and RH35, because though it only drains 6% of the sewershed, con-tributes 35% of the Canal’s sewage. If you want to photographfloating sewage - the strange beauty of America’s technologi-cal paradox, go to the bridges. You can quote Oscar Wilde’s“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at thestars” and then go home and bash out some cement as part ofthe City’s Green Infrastructure Plan.

TRASH MONSTERSThe average American generates an average of 6 pounds ofthrash a day, and the Gowanus provides the opportunity tostudy this massive torrent of cultural artifacts headed by bargeand container to China and India, the new world centers ofrecycling. Stacks of old Frank Sinatra records and flattenedBarbie Dolls can be viewed from the 4th Street Basin, andsouth of the elevated Subway tracks, your video camera maycapture the satisfying crunch sound of a Victorian cast ironbathtub in the jaws of the metal eating cranes.

THE BRIDGE TO AMERICA UNDERWATER MEMORIALOn the 27th of August 1776, a critical battle was foughtbetween the forces of England, and it’s former colonists ofAmerica. Had the now independent Americans not managed astrategic retreat across the Brouwer’s Mill bridge of GowanusCreek, American independence would have been crushed, and

Brooklyn would still be a part of Canada. To celebrate both thisstrategic historic turning point, and the now sparkling watersof the Gowanus that are expected with the Superfund cleanupand new Flushing Tunnel, canoe to this spot to visualize anunderwater monument tracing the course of this ‘Bridge toFreedom” . For those following Brooklyn’s RevolutionaryTrail, such a monument will serve to remind us that by goingbackward we also move forward.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS & BODY DUMPINGThe Canal has an exaggerated reputation for body disposal.According to policemen in Alisson Prete’s classic movie“Lavender Lake”, the waters only received an average bodyand a half annually during its more turbulent decades.Gowanus is only a third rate dumping ground. The best placeto dump a body ? : That honor goes to Pelham Bay Park in theBronx, and Jamaica Bay. Gangster Al Capone lived near theOld Stone House at 38 Garfield Place and was married at StMary, Star of the Sea Church on Court Street. While walkingthe “Sopranos” tour, take advantage of the superb neighbor-hood pizzerias and other great restaurants on Smith and CourtStreet and 5th and 7th Avenue in Park Slope.

STEAM PUNK STEEL LUNGS & TOXIC COAL TARThese rising and falling gas tank holders, built by the BrooklynUnion Gas Company, next to mountains of coal, dwarfedmany of the new luxury condominiums that are now proposedfor the same sites. The new street lights they provided revolu-tionized Brooklyn stoop culture:“Sailors and hookers, - that’s all this neighborhoodwas then - sailors and hookers ! The new street gaslights let the sailors pick out the pretty ones.”(97 year old Mrs C. quoted from her Sackett Street rockingchair). These Manufactured Gas Plants became the mainsource of underground coal tar pollutant plumes, up to 100feet deep, that the Superfund team will be figuring out how tocleanup. You can view the official “Star of the Gowanus”Superfund sample and historical photos of the plants at theHall of the Gowanus to learn more about our industrial past.

RAIN GARDENS & VIEWING STEPSAt the end of 2nd Avenue at the Canal is the perfect place tooffer or toss an engagement ring. After wiping away the tears,get a slice of warm pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds,at 3rd Ave and 8th Street. All tossed diamonds will go to theworthy cause of supporting the Gowanus Canal Conservancy’sWater Protection and Habitat Restoration efforts.

MAGICAL HIDDEN WORLDSThe Burn Brothers Coal Pockets were built between 1915 and

1938, and stored coal, and for a while metal ores, fordistribution via barge and truck to the energy intensive busi-nesses around the Gowanus. They are currently abandoned,but an amazing secret “tube ecology” has developed withinthem, as they are opened to the sky, and an example of the lifethat reemerges in the “World Without Us”. You can alsoobserve the nesting pairs of kestrels that prey on pigeons thatlive in the tubes.

THE BAT CAVE & KLEZMER DANCE HALLThe largest building along the Gowanus used to provide powerfor the Brooklyn Trolley system. It is owned by Africa Israel, anIsraeli Russian corporation that made its fortune in theAngolan blood diamonds and weapons trade. The Bat Cavecould be yours for $27 million. Built around 1896, it was anactive powerhouse until October 1938, feeding off mountains

of coal brought in by barge. Old Central was finally shut-tered in 1974. “The canal became sooo silted upwith muck, it was impossible to run the plantand steam condensing units using this pollutedwater” (Robert Lobenstein, the retired superintendentof the Power Dept. for the Brooklyn Rapid TransitSubway System.) The massive old water screw, a Arabinvention, can be seen on top of the buried 1st Streetbasin. The Powerhouse then became a Hasidic JewishDance Hall during the 80s, and then got it’s nicknamethe “Bat Cave” when it became a Punk Anarchist heroinflophouse. The new “Bat Houses” on this site, installedby GCC, hope to attract bats back to the Canal.

GHOST STREAMS & DAYLIGHTWalt Whitman, a Brooklyn poet writes in Leaves of

Grass that “the press of my feet to the earth springs ahundred affections” and through physical contact withthe industrial ecology of the Gowanus, new feelings andhopes for this damaged environment will emerge. Theoriginal streams that fed Gowanus Creek never disap-peared, and their clear outflows can be observed at lowtide from hidden cracks in the rotting bulwarks.Observed outflows are marked by blue dots on the map.Many of these, such as the remnants of Denton Mill’sCreek run underneath public right of ways, and provideopportunities for stream “daylighting” revitalization asthe City’s Green Belt and public access ambitions for thewaterfront move forward. The Fourth Street Basin is apopular spot for herons hunting for small fish.

DENTON MILL & THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLANDThe buried First Street Basin, opposite the 2nd StreetCanoe Dock, was the site of one of the critical battles ofthe 1776 Battle of Brooklyn. It was also the site of one ofthe first Public Landings in Brooklyn, and the smallisland adjacent to the Mill was the rumored burial spotof soldiers killed during the Battle. During the 1960’s thebasin was illegally filled by mobster’s trucks dumpingcontaminated rubble. The Superfund Investigation foundtoxic levels of mercury there. Look for the flowing streamat the pipe spraypainted with a “20”. You can visualizethe water trickling over the silvery mercury coated skullsand think about some of the challenges the CleanupTeam will face to deal with this pollutant dispersal.

Gowanus plants are typical of species that haveevolved to adapt to the new Global City ecology. Of par-ticular interest are metallophyte plants, plants adapted tothe toxicity of human activities, from Roman lead minesto African copper spoils. Four in particular make up theGowanus Superfund Salad Phytoremediation recipe:Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) Chicory (Cichorum inty-bus), Common Lambsquarters ( Chenopodium album)Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis). All in theoryedible, if your body is craving a shot of toxic heavymetals.

COLES MILL PONDThis was a tidal mill pond excavated by slaves out of

the Gowanus Marshes, and the namesake of the stillexisting “Mill Street”, intersecting with Court Street,home of some of Brooklyn’s finest restaurants. It wassubsequently filled in by coal ash and urban garbage,and is the proposed site for Gowanus Green, a largeresidential development and community park.

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Welcome to Brooklyn’s coolestSuperfund Tourism site.

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Raindrops on the Oil Slicked Waters of the Gowanus Canal, Diego Cupola, 2010

CARROLL BRIDGEDid you know the American Declaration of

Independence was a government document you couldsmoke? Benjamin Franklin had a penchant for pot, andthe founding fathers wrote our Founding Principles onhis paper made of Cannabis sativa, or marihuana . Oneof the Declaration’s signers, Charles Carroll, washonored by local appreciative teenagers with the namingof the Carroll Street Bridge. Though you wont findCannabis growing by the Gowanus, look for IndianPokeweed - its crushed berries provided the ink thatallowed us to write “We the People..”.

SUNKEN PIRATE SHIPS, LOCKED TRUNKS ANDTHE LEGEND OF THE GOWANUS MERMENThe 2011 Superfund Sonar Survey of the Canal bottom

revealed sunken boats and other mysterious objects thatmay provide answers to many of the Police Department’scold cases. These sunken wrecks are rumored to beinhabited by aquatic beings called “Mermen”. To find outmore about these and other species that inhabit theCanal, visit the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancyat the Ikea Park in Red Hook. These sunken “culturalartifacts” reflect the barging history of the Canal. Withthe construction of the Erie Canal in 1825, The GowanusCreek’s mill economy, based on the tidal energy of themarshes, was supplanted by factories using the energyof shipped coal from upstate mines. The creek wasdredged and straightened from 1853 to 1870 to takeadvantage of it’s strategic industrial location for thegrowing City of Brooklyn. With advent of containerizedtrucking in the 1970’s, Gowanus pollution shifted fromthe water to the air. You can admire the polluting plumesof PM 10 (very fine particulate matter) from the stream oftraffic on the BQE Bridge. If you have to ask, theGowanus Canal’s buried toxicity will have less of animpact on your kid’s asthma than the local truck yards.

THE SECOND STREET CANOE DOCK &SUPERFUNd SITEThough this guide is not an official map of theGowanus Dredgers, Canoe Club, take advantage oftheir friendliness during your strolls around theGowanus to visit their dock at the end of Second Streetat the Gowanus Canal. They run boating events onWednesday’s and Saturdays during the summer, boththere, and at the Louis Valentino Park in Red Hook andBrooklyn Bridge Park.

Enjoy your stay !

This map and other Gowanus historical documents isavailable on line at the Proteus Gowanus digital archive:http://issuu.com/proteusgowanus

You cans share your own stories and legends at info@proteusgowanus.com

historical notes by eymund@gmail.comProteus Gowanus

Gowanus Boat Dispatcher, 1949, courtesy Brooklyn Public Library