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Place Name
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Gowanus Canal
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Place Status (Type)
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canal
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Location
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New York, United States, North America
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Latitude
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40°40'N
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Longitude
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74°00'W
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Gowanus Canal
, industrial canal, SE borough of Brooklyn, N.Y.
city, SE N.Y.; 40°40'N 74°00'W. Heavily polluted, it runs S from
Hamilton Ave. at head of Gowanus Creek to Degraw St. in S. Brooklyn,
where it empties into Gowanus Bay on E side of N.Y. Harbor's Upper
Bay. Named after Gonwane, a Canarsie Indian. In the 17th cent., the
Dutch found it to be a pristine tidal inlet bordered by rich saltmarsh
from which foot-long oysters were supposedly taken; in 1774 the
Colonial Assembly enacted a law to widen the creek, draining and
filling adjacent marshes. By 1885 industrial use as a canal supported
oil refineries, machine shops, chemical plants, wagon makers, cement
and soap makers, and tanneries. In 1911 a system was opened to flush
out the canal by bringing fresh water in via a tunnel from N.Y. Harbor,
threreby getting the stagnant industrial waste and sewage moving; it
worked for 50 years, but then broke down and was not repaired. The
canal is sometimes referred to as “Lavender Lake” because of its
floating chemicals and filth. Construction of the Gowanus Expressway
through Brooklyn and subsequent increased use of trucks diminished the
canal's importance, though some ships still use it today. Al Capone
grew up nearby at Garfield Place and 4th Ave., robbing many banks in
the area.
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