146-764: Newtown Creek , a 3.5-mile (6-kilometer) long tributary of the East River , is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens , in New York City . Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of New York and New Jersey and thus one of the most polluted industrial sites in the United States, containing years of discarded toxins , an estimated 30,000,000 US gallons (110,000,000 L; 25,000,000 imp gal) of spilled oil, including
292-467: A geyser of water 250 feet (76 m) in the air. The blast has been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb", although the detonation at the Battle of Messines in 1917 was larger. Some of the rubble from the detonation was used in 1890 to fill the gap between Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock, merging the two islands into a single island, Mill Rock . At
438-414: A Bushwick Branch train with a top speed of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h), said that the train "rocked on the antique, uneven tracks like a ship at sea". The Bushwick Branch has seven active grade crossings (the busiest is Metropolitan Avenue ) along its route as of 2024, all of which are unprotected. This requires flag protection from train crews to safeguard motorists when movements are made through
584-408: A CSO event occurs once a week on average, discharging approximately 500 million gallons of raw sewage directly into New York Harbor. CSOs are the single largest impairment to the quality of New York City's waters. The city requested a postponement of the 2013 deadline in consideration of its plan to build a fully compliant Newtown Creek plant by 2022. In 2007, residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and
730-674: A CSO pipe that drains 586,000,000 US gallons (2.22 × 10 L) annually. It is crossed only by the Grand Street Bridge . The creek derives its name from New Town (Nieuwe Stad), which was the name for the Dutch and British settlement in what is now Elmhurst, Queens . Before the nineteenth century urbanization and industrialization of the surrounding neighborhoods, Newtown Creek was a longer and shallower tidal waterway, wide enough that it contained islands, including Mussel Island and Furman Island. It drained parts of what are now
876-509: A bridge built in that location from Manhattan to Queens. The Queensboro Bridge was eventually built south of this location. In 2011, NY Waterway started operating its East River Ferry line. The route was a 7-stop East River service that runs in a loop between East 34th Street and Hunters Point , making two intermediate stops in Brooklyn and three in Queens. The ferry, an alternative to
1022-431: A century. The canal was never built. A dredging project for the creek, approved in 1929, eliminated Mussel Island by the 1930s. Around the same time, the small Shanty Creek on the eastern shore of Furman Island was drained, and the island became part of Maspeth. Before 1950, bulk-oil storage facilities near the corner of Manhattan Avenue and Huron Street were spilling petroleum in amounts that were eventually more than
1168-536: A dam at Roosevelt Island (then Blackwell's Island) to create a wet basin for shipping. Filling in part of the river was also proposed in 1867 by engineer James E. Serrell, later a city surveyor, but with emphasis on solving the problem of Hell Gate. Serrell proposed filling in Hell Gate and building a "New East River" through Queens with an extension to Westchester County . Serrell's plan – which he publicized with maps, essay and lectures as well as presentations to
1314-399: A farmer collecting 20 oxcarts worth of menhaden using simple fishing nets deployed from the shore. The combination of more sewage, due to the availability of more potable water – New York's water consumption per capita was twice that of Europe – indoor plumbing, the destruction of filter feeders, and the collapse of the food chain, damaged the ecosystem of the waters around New York, including
1460-783: A law in Brooklyn banning steam locomotives, horses pulled trains from the Bushwick Depot to the East River Ferry Terminal in 1868. Steam dummy engines pulled trains from Bushwick depot to East River Ferry Terminal between 1869 and 1873. The two main railroad routes leading to the East River ferry terminals were along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn , a route owned by the LIRR, and in Long Island City ,
1606-571: A line west of Jamaica to the East River so its passengers could connect to ferries that would take them into Manhattan . The South Side originally wanted to build to Long Island City , and tried to buy out the interest of the New York and Flushing Railroad , a small competitor to the FNSRR. However, the LIRR, which was also looking for access to Long Island City, beat out the South Side bid for
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#17327934052281752-587: A marina, so owners do not pay to park their boat. Boat dwellers have faced eviction several times from the city's Small Business Services Department and the Transportation Department. Notes Bibliography Further reading East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary or strait in New York City . The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island , with
1898-549: A new canalized East River, only this time from Flushing Bay to Jamaica Bay . He would also expand Brooklyn into the Upper Harbor, put up a dam from Brooklyn to Staten Island , and make extensive landfill in the Lower Bay. At around the same time, in the 1920s, John A. Harriss, New York City's chief traffic engineer, who had developed the first traffic signals in the city, also had plans for the river. Harriss wanted to dam
2044-535: A new terminal on the East River (this line today is referred to by the LIRR as the Lower Montauk). However, the South Side only used this new line for freight service, due to the competing passenger service offered by FNSRR. Passenger trains still ran through Bushwick to Williamsburg. In 1874, the South Side, along with other railroads on Long Island such as the Central Railroad of Long Island and
2190-553: A route owned by the Flushing and North Side Railroad (FNSRR). To provide a marine freight terminal, in the summer of 1869, a spur was built to the Newtown Creek at Furman's Island, which today is connected by landfill to the rest of Brooklyn. The LIRR service to Long Island City via the old New York and Flushing route was not well run and disliked by the public. Most chose the far superior Long Island City service offered by
2336-596: A separate bridge over the Dutch Kills located directly north of the Montauk Branch's bridge. Dutch Kills starts at 47th Avenue and 29th Street in Long Island City, and empties into Newtown Creek on the right bank. The course of Dutch Kills is lined mainly with warehouses. Formerly, its headwaters were at Northern Boulevard and 33rd Street. It formed a navigable stream along with Sunswick Creek to
2482-552: A significant overflow occurred during the New York City blackout of 1977 (828,000,000 US gallons (3.13 × 10 L; 689,000,000 imp gal) of raw sewage spilled into the East River), the federal government ordered in 1995 that the city build back-up facilities. Despite this, the Northeast blackout of 2003 produced 145,000,000 US gallons (550,000,000 L; 121,000,000 imp gal) of raw sewage spilled. In 1998,
2628-420: A tar-like substance which was sold to companies that used it as an ingredient in superphosphate fertilizer. These businesses, which built factories close to the source of their raw material, then dumped their waste into the environment, as did the chemical companies with the sulfur that was the waste from producing sulfuric acid. By the mid-19th century, Newtown Creek had become a major industrial waterway, with
2774-535: Is a 15-foot-thick (4.6 m) layer (in some places 25 feet (7.6 m)) of polluted sludge that has congealed on the creek bed. The Lower Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), used primarily for freight, runs along the north bank and across the Dutch Kills via a small movable truss bridge . The abandoned Montauk Cutoff , which connects the branch to the LIRR's Main Line runs on
2920-541: Is dominated by residential neighborhoods consisting of large apartment buildings and parkland (much of which is dotted with the ruins of older structures). The largest land mass in the River south of Roosevelt Island is U Thant Island , an artificial islet created during the construction of the Steinway Tunnel (which currently serves the subway's 7 and <7> lines) . Officially named Belmont Island after one of
3066-578: Is navigable for its entire length of 16 miles (26 km), and was historically the center of maritime activities in the city. Technically a drowned valley , like the other waterways around New York City, the strait was formed approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation . The distinct change in the shape of the strait between the lower and upper portions is evidence of this glacial activity. The upper portion (from Long Island Sound to Hell Gate), running largely perpendicular to
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#17327934052283212-526: Is owned by the LIRR but operated under lease by the New York and Atlantic Railway , which took over LIRR freight operations in May 1997. The Bushwick Branch dates back to the South Side Railroad of Long Island . The South Side had been chartered on March 23, 1860 to build a railroad from Jamaica, Queens , all the way to Islip along the south shore of Long Island . The South Side sought to build
3358-466: Is without consideration of the tidal influence of the Harlem River, all of which creates a "dangerous cataract", as one ship's captain put it. The river is navigable for its entire length of 16 miles (26 km). In 1939 it was reported that the stretch from The Battery to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard near Wallabout Bay , a run of about 1,000 yards (910 m), was 40 feet (12 m) deep,
3504-595: The Exxon Valdez oil spill . An underground explosion at the same corner added to the problem. BP , Chevron , and ExxonMobil have since removed half of the spill, about 12,000,000 US gallons (45,000,000 L; 10,000,000 imp gal), from the creek and surrounding area, selling the oil that was removed. In 1973 the Peter van Iderstine plant which had been turning butcher's discards and at least one 10-ton elephant into fertilizer, animal feed, and glue since 1855
3650-547: The Army Corps of Engineers to continue Maillefert's work. In 1851, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , "under Lt. Bartlett of the Army Corps of Engineers," began to do the job, in an operation which was to span 70 years. The appropriated money was soon spent without appreciable change in the hazards of navigating the strait. An advisory council recommended in 1856 that the strait be cleared of all obstacles, but nothing
3796-476: The City of Brooklyn starting to dump raw sewage into it in 1866. It was bounded along most of its length by retaining walls , and the shipping channel was maintained by dredging . Public protests over the degradation of the waterway and the surrounding area, and frequent newspaper exposés did little to ameliorate the problem, considering the economic benefit of the industries located along the creek and nearby. Queens
3942-536: The Dutch name Hellegat meaning either "bright strait" or "clear opening", given to the entire river in 1614 by explorer Adriaen Block when he passed through it in his ship Tyger – is a narrow, turbulent, and particularly treacherous stretch of the river. Tides from the Long Island Sound, New York Harbor and the Harlem River meet there, making it difficult to navigate, especially because of
4088-592: The Greenpoint oil spill , raw sewage from New York City's sewer system, and other accumulation from a total of 1,491 sites. Newtown Creek was proposed as a potential Superfund site in September 2009, and received that designation on September 27, 2010. The EPA has delayed its cleanup until 2032. The creek begins near the intersection of 47th Street and Grand Avenue on the Brooklyn-Queens border at
4234-529: The Lower East Side . The captain of the ship and the managers of the company that owned it were indicted, but only the captain was convicted; he spent 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 years of his 10-year sentence at Sing Sing Prison before being released by a federal parole board, and then pardoned by President William Howard Taft . Beginning in 1934, and then again from 1948 to 1966, the Manhattan shore of
4380-680: The New York City Subway system – as does the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel . (See Crossings below for details.) Also under the river is Water Tunnel #1 of the New York City water supply system , built in 1917 to extend the Manhattan portion of the tunnel to Brooklyn, and via City Tunnel #2 (1936) to Queens; these boroughs became part of New York City after the city's consolidation in 1898. City Tunnel #3 will also run under
4526-483: The West Hempstead Branch . These trains ran from Bushwick Junction to Bushwick. The last timetable to show this passenger service is from October 1923. Timetables from the era show fewer and fewer trains leaving from Bushwick Terminal. On May 13, 1924, passenger service was completely discontinued. Despite the end of passenger service, limited freight service continues on the line. The Bushwick Branch
Newtown Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue
4672-522: The American East Coast. The Department of Docks was given the task of creating the master plan for the waterfront, and General George B. McClellan was engaged to head the project. McClellan held public hearings and invited plans to be submitted, ultimately receiving 70 of them, although in the end he and his successors put his own plan into effect. That plan called for the building of a seawall around Manhattan island from West 61st Street on
4818-544: The Americans at the Battle of Long Island , General George Washington was rounding up all the boats on the east shore of the river, in what is now Brooklyn, and used them to successfully move his troops across the river – under cover of night, rain, and fog – to Manhattan island, before the British could press their advantage. Thus, though the battle was a victory for the British, the failure of Sir William Howe to destroy
4964-563: The Blasting of Hell Gate traces Newton's work on this project from 1866 to 1885. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of explosives to blast the rocks, which was followed by further blasting. The process was started by excavating under Hallets reef from Astoria . Cornish miners, assisted by steam drills, dug galleries under the reef, which were then interconnected. They later drilled holes for explosives. A patent
5110-570: The Bronx, and Sunswick Creek in Queens. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the land north of the East River was occupied by the Siwanoys , one of many groups of Algonquin -speaking Lenapes in the area. Those of the Lenapes who lived in the northern part of Manhattan Island in a campsite known as Konaande Kongh used a landing at around the current location of East 119th street to paddle into
5256-785: The Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges, and the Ward's Island Footbridge, and terminates just before the Robert F. Kennedy Triboro Bridge when it connects to the Harlem River Drive . Between most of the FDR Drive and the River is the East River Greenway , part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway . The East River Greenway was primarily built in connection with the building of
5402-716: The City of New York built a nature walk alongside Newtown Creek just outside the plant's perimeter in 2009. Later, the North Brooklyn Boat Club built a boatyard and education center with funds from the Exxon's settlement with the state to allow access to the creek. Even with the expansion of the plant, as of 2014, the city is still not in full compliance with the 1972 federal Clean Water Act , which mandates that secondary treatment should remove 85% of pollutants from incoming sewage, or with New York State's 1992 order for
5548-629: The Continental Army when he had the opportunity allowed the Americans to continue fighting. Without the stealthy withdrawal across the East River, the American Revolution might have ended much earlier. Wallabout Bay on the River was the site of most of the British prison ships – most notoriously HMS Jersey – where thousands of American prisoners of war were held in terrible conditions. These prisoners had come into
5694-612: The East Branch merge. It was eliminated in the late 19th century, having been deemed an obstruction to navigation. Several houseboats are docked on the Newtown Creek. These include the MV Schamonchi , a former Martha's Vineyard ferry that ended up in Brooklyn when it was decommissioned and sold in 2005. The Schamonchi served as a squat and a party space, and owners paid to dock it at 190 Morgan. Other boats are rented out to tenants. Most boats are docked on city land, without
5840-419: The East Branch of the creek; during rainstorms, these handle raw sewage. Because the surrounding neighborhoods are completely sewerized, the creek has little natural inflow of natural freshwater, and is largely stagnant except as a result of tides . Its outgoing flow of 14 billion US gallons (53,000,000 m) per year consists of CSO, urban runoff , raw domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater. There
5986-489: The East River Ferry as part of the system. In February 2012 the federal government announced an agreement with Verdant Power to install 30 tidal turbines in the channel of the East River. The turbines were projected to begin operations in 2015 and are supposed to produce 1.05 megawatts of power. The strength of the current foiled an earlier effort in 2007 to tap the river for tidal power . On May 7, 2017,
Newtown Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue
6132-589: The East River at Hell Gate and the Williamsburg Bridge, then remove the water, put a roof over it on stilts, and build boulevards and pedestrian lanes on the roof along with "majestic structures", with transportation services below. The East River's course would, once again, be shifted to run through Queens, and this time Brooklyn as well, to channel it to the Harbor. Periodically, merchants and other interested parties would try to get something done about
6278-457: The East River near 65th Street. Although the museum denied that any fossils had been dumped into the river, Reeves's allegations prompted commercial divers to search the river for evidence of mammoth bones. Throughout most of the history of New York City, and New Amsterdam before it, the East River has been the receptacle for the city's garbage and sewage. " Night men " who collected " night soil " from outdoor privies would dump their loads into
6424-401: The East River was authorized to be filled-in, this time to a point 400 feet beyond the low-water mark; the parts that had already been expanded to the low water mark – much of which had been devastated by a coastal storm in the early 1720s and a nor'easter in 1723 – were also expanded, narrowing the channel even further. What had been quiet beach land was to become new streets and buildings, and
6570-735: The East River wharves and slips to begin a long process of decay, until the area was finally rehabilitated in the mid-1960s, and the South Street Seaport Museum was opened in 1967. By 1870, the condition of the Port of New York along both the East and Hudson Rivers had so deteriorated that the New York State legislature created the Department of Docks to renovate the port and keep New York competitive with other ports on
6716-452: The East River's tides helped to power mills which ground grain to flour. By 1642 there was a ferry running on the river between Manhattan island and what is now Brooklyn, and the first pier on the river was built in 1647 at Pearl and Broad Streets. After the British took over the colony in 1664, which was renamed "New York", the development of the waterfront continued, and a shipbuilding industry grew up once New York started exporting flour. By
6862-403: The East River, almost beyond repair. Because of these changes to the ecosystem, by 1909, the level of dissolved-oxygen in the lower part of the river had declined to less than 65%, where 55% of saturation is the point at which the amount of fish and the number of their species begins to be affected. Only 17 years later, by 1926, the level of dissolved oxygen in the river had fallen to 13%, below
7008-604: The East Side up to 71st Street flows through 180 miles (290 km) of sewer pipes into interceptor pipes to the Thirteenth Street Pumping Station at 13th Street and Avenue D , from where it is sent under the East River to the plant. Normal influx is 170,000,000 US gallons (640,000,000 L; 140,000,000 imp gal) per day, which increases to 300,000,000 US gallons (1.1 × 10 L; 250,000,000 imp gal) during wet weather. When
7154-501: The FDR Drive, although some portions were built as recently as 2002, and other sections are still incomplete. In 1963, Con Edison built the Ravenswood Generating Station on the Long Island City shore of the river, on land some of which was once stone quarries which provided granite and marble slabs for Manhattan's buildings. The plant has since been owned by KeySpan . National Grid and TransCanada ,
7300-474: The FNSRR, came under control of wealthy local rubber baron Conrad Poppenhusen . The South Side was reorganized as the Southern Railroad of Long Island . By 1876, Poppenhusen also took control of the LIRR. Seeing the LIRR as the most formidable of his newly acquired railroads, he began to consolidate the competing roads into the LIRR. The LIRR thus gained the FNSRR tracks to Long Island City, making it
7446-482: The Flushing and North Side Railroad. The LIRR abandoned its Long Island City service and sold its tracks east of Winfield, Queens , to the FNSRR. The rest of the route west of Winfield to Long Island City remained unused. Seeking an opportunity, the South Side decided to buy up the remaining tracks in 1872, and extended service west from Fresh Pond to Maspeth along Newtown Creek and on to Long Island City, thus gaining
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#17327934052287592-550: The Fresh Pond Yard and entered the Bushwick Branch. While passing through the unprotected crossings, the engine struck several vehicles, seriously injuring four motorists. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration investigation into the incident revealed that the engine's air brakes had failed, causing it to break loose and roll away. Parking brakes had not been applied due to
7738-520: The Hudson, around The Battery , and up to East 51st Street on the East River. The area behind the masonry wall (mostly concrete but in some parts granite blocks) would be filled in with landfill, and wide streets would be laid down on the new land. In this way, a new edge for the island (or at least the part of it used as a commercial port) would be created. The department had surveyed 13,700 feet (4,200 m) of shoreline by 1878, as well as documenting
7884-483: The New York City Subway, cost $ 4 per one-way ticket. It was instantly popular: from June to November 2011, the ferry saw 350,000 riders, over 250% of the initial ridership forecast of 134,000 riders. In December 2016, in preparation for the start of NYC Ferry service the next year, Hornblower Cruises purchased the rights to operate the East River Ferry. NYC Ferry started service on May 1, 2017, with
8030-511: The New York State Attorney General's Office filed lawsuits regarding the Greenpoint oil spill . On September 27, 2010, the federal Environmental Protection Agency designated Newtown Creek as a Superfund site, preparing the way for evaluation and environmental remediation of the stream. Environment advocacy groups supported the decision. Plank Road Public Shoreline, located in Queens where 58th Road ends and meets
8176-594: The New York and Flushing and bought it out instead. Thus, the only recourse for the South Side was to build a line from Jamaica to Fresh Pond, Queens , and then southwest into Bushwick. On July 18, 1868, service on the branch began running to Bushwick, and on November 4 to the East River at the South Eighth Street station in Williamsburg, where passengers would take a ferry into Manhattan. Due to
8322-667: The River's principal islands include Manhattan's Mill Rock , an 8.6-acre (3.5 ha) island located about 1000 feet from Manhattan's East 96th Street; Manhattan's 520-acre Randalls and Wards Islands , two formerly separate islands joined by landfill that are home to a large public park, a number of public institutions, and the supports for the Triborough and the Hell Gate Bridges ; the Bronx's Rikers Island , once under 100 acres (0.40 km ) but now over 400 acres (1.6 km ) following extensive landfill expansion after
8468-411: The Triborough), and the Hell Gate Bridge . On the south side of Wards Island, it is joined by the Harlem River . Newtown Creek on Long Island, which itself contained several tributaries, drains into the East River and forms part of the boundary between Queens and Brooklyn. Bushwick Inlet and Wallabout Bay on Long Island also drain into the strait on the Long Island side. The Gowanus Canal
8614-447: The area saw much use for the line in freight service, while the many industrial jobs in Bushwick warranted passenger commuter service for workers traveling to factories in the area. Nevertheless, the Bushwick Branch became a less and less important terminal, and the increasing prevalence of cars, as well as the fact of the branch had no direct transit connections into Manhattan, caused the branch's main passenger trade to begin to dwindle. By
8760-480: The area which ended in 1851 with a detailed and accurate map. By then Maillefert had cleared the rock "Baldheaded Billy", and it was reported that Pot Rock had been reduced to 20.5 feet (6.2 m), which encouraged the United States Congress to appropriate $ 20,000 for further clearing of the strait. However, a more accurate survey showed that the depth of Pot Rock was actually a little more than 18 feet (5.5 m), and eventually Congress withdrew its funding. With
8906-405: The battles in the war: as many as 12,000 soldiers, sailors and civilians. The bodies were thrown overboard or were buried in shallow graves on the riverbanks, but their bones – some of which were collected when they washed ashore – were later relocated and are now inside the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in nearby Fort Greene Park . The existence of the ships and the conditions the men were held in
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#17327934052289052-405: The boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens , from Manhattan Island, and from the Bronx on the North American mainland. Because of its connection to Long Island Sound, it was once also known as the Sound River . The tidal strait changes its direction of flow regularly, and is subject to strong fluctuations in its current, which are accentuated by its narrowness and variety of depths. The waterway
9198-405: The burgeoning sea trade. Many of the "water-lot" grants went to the rich and powerful families of the merchant class, although some went to tradesmen. By 1700, the Manhattan bank of the river had been "wharfed-out" up to around Whitehall Street , narrowing the strait of the river. After the signing of the Montgomerie Charter in the late 1720s, another 127 acres of land along the Manhattan shore of
9344-485: The catastrophic failure of a Con Edison substation in Brooklyn caused a spill into the river of over 5,000 US gallons (18,927 L; 4,163 imp gal) of dielectric fluid , a synthetic mineral oil used to cool electrical equipment and prevent electrical discharges. (See below .) At the end of 2022, gold miner John Reeves claimed that up to 50 tons of ice age artifacts bound for the American Museum of Natural History , including mammoth remains, had been dumped into
9490-415: The channel from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Manhattan. Bushwick Branch The Bushwick Branch , also called the Bushwick Lead Track , is a freight railroad branch in New York City . It runs from the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to Fresh Pond Junction in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens , where it connects with the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road . It
9636-432: The channel was by 1776 three fathoms deep (18 feet (5.5 m)), five fathoms deep (30 feet (9.1 m)) in the same spot by 1798, and when surveyed by Williams in 1807 had deepened to 7 fathoms (42 feet (13 m)) at low tide. What had been almost a bridge between two landforms that were once connected had become a fully navigable channel, thanks to the constriction of the East River and the increased flow it caused. Soon,
9782-433: The city built the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant , which is now the largest sewage treatment facility operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection . Located on the south bank near the creek's mouth in Greenpoint, the plant handles a large portion of the drainage from the East Side of Manhattan. Sewage from the Financial District, Greenwich Village , the Lower East Side , Midtown East and
9928-417: The city started its program to expand the facility. Construction was completed in 2014, and the plant remained opened throughout the renovation process. The plant's unusual aesthetics, especially its 140-foot (42 meter) tall metallic "digester eggs" which are illuminated at night with blue lights, have made it a local landmark. In part to appease neighborhood residents who initially opposed the plant's expansion,
10074-431: The city to prevent overflows by 2013. Overflows from the Newtown Creek plant on the order of 100,000,000 US gallons (380,000,000 L; 83,000,000 imp gal) occur on the average of once a week. When that occurs When sewage loads exceed the capacity of the Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Facility trash, pesticides, petroleum products, PCBs, mercury, cadmium, lead, pathogenic microorganisms, and nutrients which reduce
10220-475: The city, state and federal governments – would have filled in the river from 14th Street to 125th Street. The New East River through Queens would be about three times the average width of the existing one at an even 3,600 feet (1,100 m) throughout, and would run as straight as an arrow for five miles (8.0 km). The new land, and the portions of Queens which would become part of Manhattan, adding 2,500 acres (1,000 ha), would be covered with an extension of
10366-481: The company employed approximately 1,250 people, but the workforce declined when the company closed the smelter, and eventually the site was sold to the U.S. Postal Service in 1986. When the USPS discovered unacceptable levels of heavy metal waste from the smelting process, the U.S. Attorney 's office forced Phelps Dodge to void the sale, take the property back, and to clean it up, which, as of 2016, has not been done. A canal to connect Newtown Creek with Flushing River
10512-483: The core of the city's sea-borne trade. This infilling went as far north as Corlear's Hook . In addition, the city was given control of the western shore of the river from Wallabout Bay south. Expansion of the waterfront halted during the American Revolution , in which the East River played an important role early in the conflict. On August 28, 1776, while British and Hessian troops rested after besting
10658-501: The creek from 23 different locations. These combined sewer overflows contribute to ongoing pollution of the creek. The margin between rainfall and sewage overflow only thins with the city's further development. In addition, it was reported in December 2013 that in addition to oil and human waste, EPA crews were expected to find toxic substances such as arsenic , caesium-137 , and polychlorinated biphenyls . The westernmost crossing of
10804-522: The creek increased dramatically when petroleum from Pennsylvania was shipped up the creek to facilities which had once distilled illuminating oil from coal. More refineries sprang up, including Robert Chesebrough 's for making petroleum jelly , marketed as Vaseline . There was only one refinery in Queens in 1860, but the demand for kerosene and other petroleum products increased the number dramatically, all of which required large parcels of land for storage and processing, as well as pipelines for transporting
10950-962: The creek is the Pulaski Bridge , built in 1954 to replace the Vernon Avenue Bridge slightly to the west. Upstream is the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge , built in 1987 to replace bridges that dated to the 1850s. The final bridge upstream, before the convergence of English Kills and the East Branch, is the Kosciuszko Bridge carrying the Brooklyn Queens Expressway ( Interstate 278 ); it was built in 1939 and replaced in 2017–2019. There are several now-demolished bridges that crossed Newtown Creek. The Vernon Avenue Bridge, connecting Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn with Vernon Boulevard in Queens,
11096-659: The creek, is a revitalized public access point to the creek founded in 2013 by the Newtown Creek Alliance with support from the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program, the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) and New York State Department of Conservation. The site features a view of the creek with the borough of Manhattan visible on the other side, a short pathway towards
11242-447: The creek. The city fined Empire Transit Mix in 2005 for ridding itself of its slurry through a secret pipe. The discharges of some other companies had pH levels equal to that of household ammonia . The first steps towards cleaning up the toxic environment of Newtown Creek came in 1924, when the federal government passed an oil pollution law, albeit one which had been weakened by the industry as it made its way through Congress. In 1967
11388-416: The crossing. Originally the crossings had crossing gate protection; however, due to the limited use of the line, they were deemed unnecessary and removed in 1990. The unprotected crossings restrict the trains and light engines to 10 MPH. On March 10, 2004, an LIRR engine, EMD MP15AC #165, undergoing a quick turnaround switching move became uncoupled from two other engines, rolled down a slight incline in
11534-399: The current in the East River had become so strong that larger ships had to use auxiliary steam power in order to turn. The continued narrowing of the channel on both side may have been the reasoning behind the suggestion of one New York State Senator, who wanted to fill in the East River and annex Brooklyn, with the cost of doing so being covered by selling the newly made land. Others proposed
11680-515: The current sounded "like a bull bellowing for more drink" at half tide, while at full tide it slept "as soundly as an alderman after dinner". He said it was like "a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skinful, but who, when half-seas over, plays the very devil." The tidal regime is complex, with the two major tides – from the Long Island Sound and from the Atlantic Ocean – separated by about two hours; and this
11826-414: The currents and tides. By 1900, 75 miles (121 km) had been surveyed and core samples had been taken to inform the builders of how deep the bedrock was. The work was completed just as World War I began, allowing the Port of New York to be a major point of embarkation for troops and materiel. The new seawall helps protect Manhattan island from storm surges, although it is only 5 feet (1.5 m) above
11972-442: The days of passenger trains was demolished only in 2005. Most freight traffic on the line today is garbage collection and transfer from factories in the area. This and the branch's limited use often cause the right of way to be littered with trash. The branch is between 16 feet (4.9 m) and 100 feet (30 m) wide. In addition, the branch had become overgrown due to lack of use: a writer for The New York Times in 1993, riding on
12118-501: The difficulty of navigating through Hell Gate. In 1832, the New York State legislature was presented with a petition for a canal to be built through nearby Hallet's Point, thus avoiding Hell Gate altogether. Instead, the legislature responded by providing ships with pilots trained to navigate the shoals for the next 15 years. In 1849, a French engineer whose specialty was underwater blasting, Benjamin Maillefert , had cleared some of
12264-477: The dissolved oxygen content of the water are dumped into Newtown Creek. This dumping is referred to as a combined sewer overflow or CSO. CSOs can be triggered by as little as a tenth of an inch of rain. Essentially anything that gets washed into the gutters from the street, anything that households and businesses flush down the toilet or dump down the drain, has a fair chance of being expelled directly into Newtown Creek or New York Harbor untreated. In New York City
12410-468: The early 1900s, LIRR began a series of electrification and grade elimination projects for its routes throughout Brooklyn and Queens. While its Main Line , Montauk Branch , Rockaway Beach Branch , and Atlantic Branch received these improvements, the Bushwick did not. By 1913, steam trains were eliminated along the line and replaced with battery-powered electric multiple-unit trains that were also used on
12556-537: The end of the 17th century, the Great Dock, located at Corlear's Hook on the East River, had been built. Historically, the lower portion of the strait, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn, was one of the busiest and most important channels in the world, particularly during the first three centuries of New York City's history. Because the water along the lower Manhattan shoreline was too shallow for large boats to tie up and unload their goods, from 1686 on – after
12702-414: The end of the piers. The "landfill" which created new land along the shoreline when the river was "wharfed out" by the sale of "water lots" was largely garbage such as bones, offal, and even whole dead animals, along with excrement – human and animal. The result was that by the 1850s, if not before, the East River, like the other waterways around the city, was undergoing the process of eutrophication where
12848-534: The estate of Gershom Moore there, and soon had a wide reputation, appearing on the "Select List" of apples issues by the Horticultural Society of London , and drawing the praise of Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and Queen Victoria , who, after tasting the fruit, revoked the import tax on apples. Farmers used the creek to barge their goods to market early in the 19th century, but traffic on
12994-513: The existing street grid of Manhattan. Variations on Serrell's plan would be floated over the years. A pseudonymous "Terra Firma" brought up filling in the East River again in the Evening Post and Scientific American in 1904, and Thomas Alva Edison took it up in 1906. Then Thomas Kennard Thompson, a bridge and railway engineer, proposed in 1913 to fill in the river from Hell Gate to the tip of Manhattan and, as Serrell had suggested, make
13140-498: The expected quick turnaround of the engines. The NTSB and FRA now mandate that air and parking brakes be applied to all engines or trains laying idle, regardless of the length of time that they will be laid up. The report also suggested that the pavement along each of the crossings be repaved to allow both trains and street traffic to move over the crossings more gently. In addition, they recommended that more advanced railroad crossing signs, and eventually crossing gates, be installed along
13286-410: The fields of medicine and biological science. North of it is one of the major medical centers in the city, NewYork Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center , which is associated with the medical schools of both Columbia University and Cornell University . Although it can trace its history back to 1771, the center on York Avenue, much of which overlooks the river, was built in 1932. The East River
13432-435: The glacial motion, is wide, meandering, and has deep narrow bays on both banks, scoured out by the glacier's movement. The lower portion (from Hell Gate to New York Bay ) runs north–south, parallel to the glacial motion. It is much narrower, with straight banks. The bays that exist, as well as those that used to exist before being filled in by human activity, are largely wide and shallow. The section known as "Hell Gate" – from
13578-530: The hands of the British after the fall of New York City on September 15, 1776, after the American loss at the Battle of Long Island and the loss of Fort Washington on November 16. Prisoners began to be housed on the broken-down warships and transports in December; about 24 ships were used in total, but generally only 5 or 6 at a time. Almost twice as many Americans died from neglect in these ships than did from all
13724-441: The harbor was not created. In the 1850s the depth continued to lessen – the harbor commission said in 1850 that the mean water low was 24 feet (7.3 m) and the extreme water low was 23 feet (7.0 m) – while the draft required by the new ships continued to increase, meaning it was only safe for them to enter the harbor at high tide. The U.S. Congress, realizing that the problem needed to be addressed, appropriated $ 20,000 for
13870-414: The increase in nitrogen from excrement and other sources led to a decrease in free oxygen , which in turn led to an increase in phytoplankton such as algae and a decrease in other life forms, breaking the area's established food chain. The East River became very polluted, and its animal life decreased drastically. In an earlier time, one person had described the transparency of the water: "I remember
14016-476: The intersection of the East Branch and English Kills. It empties into the East River at 2nd Street and 54th Avenue in Long Island City, opposite Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan at 26th Street. Its waterfront, and that of its tributaries Dutch Kills, Whale Creek , Maspeth Creek, and English Kills are heavily industrialized. Combined sewer overflow (CSO) pipes drain into all four major tributaries, as well as
14162-628: The island on its north end is due to an extension of the 125th Street Fault . Politically, the island's 147 acres (0.59 km ) constitute part of the borough of Manhattan. It is connected to Queens by the Roosevelt Island Bridge , to Manhattan by the Roosevelt Island Tramway , and to both boroughs by a subway station served by the F train . The Queensboro Bridge also runs across Roosevelt Island, and an elevator allowing both pedestrian and vehicular access to
14308-498: The island was added to the bridge in 1930, but elevator service was discontinued in 1955 following the opening of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, and the elevator was demolished in 1970. The island, which was formerly known as Blackwell's Island and Welfare Island before being renamed in honor of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , historically served as the site of a penitentiary and a number of hospitals; today, it
14454-452: The island's 1884 purchase by the city as a prison farm and still home to New York City's massive and controversial primary jail complex; and North and South Brother Islands , both of which also constitute part of the Bronx. The Bronx River , Pugsley Creek , and Westchester Creek drain into the northern bank of the East River in the northern section of the strait. The Flushing River , historically known as Flushing Creek, empties into
14600-435: The long section from there, running to the west of Roosevelt Island, through Hell Gate and to Throg's Neck was at least 35 feet (11 m) deep, and then eastward from there the river was, at mean low tide, 168 feet (51 m) deep. The broadness of the river's channel south of Roosevelt Island is caused by the dipping of the hardy Fordham gneiss underlying the island under the less strong Inwood marble which lies under
14746-407: The low water mark into the river, and with the advent of gridded streets along the new waterline – Joseph Mangin had laid out such a grid in 1803 in his A Plan and Regulation of the City of New York , which was rejected by the city, but established the concept – the coastline become regularized at the same time that the strait became even narrower. One result of the narrowing of the East River along
14892-413: The main shipping channels through The Narrows into the harbor silting up with sand due to littoral drift , thus providing ships with less depth, and a new generation of larger ships coming online – epitomized by Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's SS Great Eastern , popularly known as "Leviathan" – New York began to be concerned that it would start to lose its status as a great port if a "back door" entrance into
15038-531: The marine sciences section of the DEP, the channel is swift, with water moving as fast as four knots, just as it does in the Hudson River on the other side of Manhattan. That speed can push casual swimmers out to sea. A few people drown in the waters around New York City each year. As of 2013 , it was reported that the level of bacteria in the river was below federal guidelines for swimming on most days, although
15184-559: The mean sea level, so that particularly dangerous storms, such as the nor'easter of 1992 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which hit the city in a way to create surges which are much higher, can still do significant damage. (The Hurricane of September 3, 1821, created the biggest storm surge on record in New York City: a rise of 13 feet (4.0 m) in one hour at the Battery, flooding all of lower Manhattan up to Canal Street .) Still,
15330-426: The menhaden population collapsed. Menhaden feed on phytoplankton, helping to keep them in check, and are also a vital step in the food chain, as bluefish , striped bass and other fish species which do not eat phytoplankton feed on the menhaden. The oyster is another filter feeder: oysters purify 10 to 100 gallons a day, while each menhaden filters four gallons in a minute, and their schools were immense: one report had
15476-566: The neighborhoods of Bushwick , Williamsburg , and Greenpoint in Brooklyn ; and Maspeth , Ridgewood , Sunnyside , and Long Island City in Queens . At the time of the American Revolution , British General Warren had his headquarters along the creek. The Sackett House was inherited by the wife of DeWitt Clinton , and Clinton stayed there during much of the planning of the Erie Canal project. Apples called Newtown Pippins originated on
15622-454: The new seawall begun in 1871 gave the island a firmer edge, improved the quality of the port, and continues to protect Manhattan from normal storm surges. The Brooklyn Bridge , completed in 1883, was the first bridge to span the East River, connecting the cities of New York and Brooklyn , and all but replacing the frequent ferry service between them, which did not return until the late 20th century. The bridge offered cable car service across
15768-506: The north, making it easy for merchants to transport produce and goods along the creek. Whale Creek starts at what is now the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn , and empties into the creek on the left bank opposite Dutch Kills. It originally extended farther south to Greenpoint Avenue , but was straightened and turned into a canal in the 20th century. Much of the creek
15914-478: The northern shipping entrance to the city were now open, modern dredging techniques had cut through the sandbars of the Atlantic Ocean entrance, allowing new, even larger ships to use that traditional passage into New York's docks. At the beginning of the 19th century, the East River was the center of New York's shipping industry, but by the end of the century, much of it had moved to the Hudson River, leaving
16060-483: The number of rocky islets which once dotted it, with names such as "Frying Pan", "Pot, Bread and Cheese", "Hen and Chicken", "Heel Top"; "Flood"; and "Gridiron", roughly 12 islets and reefs in all, all of which led to a number of shipwrecks, including HMS Hussar , a British frigate that sank in 1780 while supposedly carrying gold and silver intended to pay British troops. The stretch has since been cleared of rocks and widened. Washington Irving wrote of Hell Gate that
16206-695: The old Southern Road division, were immediately rerouted to Long Island City via the Lower Montauk branch; full integration of the old-Southern Road division with the LIRR Main Line would not be achieved until the Jamaica station improvement project of 1912-13. The ex-Southern line between Bushwick and Williamsburg was abandoned and cut back to a terminal at Bushwick. By the 1880s, Poppenhusen's successor Austin Corbin had successfully consolidated all
16352-531: The point at which most fish species can survive. Due to heavy pollution , the East River is dangerous to people who fall in or attempt to swim in it, although as of mid-2007 the water was cleaner than it had been in decades. As of 2010 , the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) categorizes the East River as Use Classification I, meaning it is safe for secondary contact activities such as boating and fishing. According to
16498-548: The primary route for passengers and freight looking to reach Manhattan. The LIRR Atlantic Avenue line was cut back from South Ferry, Brooklyn , to a terminal at Flatbush Avenue , where passengers could transfer to the Fifth Avenue Elevated (and after 1910 the IRT subway) to reach Manhattan, thereby making Flatbush Avenue a secondary terminal for the LIRR. In 1876, most of the lines of the ex-Southern, referred to as
16644-486: The product. John D. Rockefeller decided that Standard Oil would be based in the Newtown Creek area, and soon began buying up the refineries of rivals, until by the 1880s the company was processing 3,000,000 US gallons (11,000,000 L; 2,500,000 imp gal) of crude oil weekly, employing 2,000 people in their more than 100 stills. The pastoral land around the creek became "a vast interconnected complex of wharves, stills, tanks, and pipelines," to service not only
16790-481: The railroads. The Bushwick Branch, much like the Atlantic Branch to Flatbush Avenue, acted as a second terminal for the LIRR; however, it offered no convenient transit connections into other parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The line was double-tracked in 1868, then reduced to a single track in 1876, but double-tracked again in 1892. In 1877, a station house was built at Bushwick station. Heavy industry in
16936-474: The readings may vary significantly, so that the outflow from Newtown Creek or the Gowanus Canal can be tens or hundreds of times higher than recommended, according to Riverkeeper , a non-profit environmentalist advocacy group. The counts are also higher along the shores of the strait than they are in the middle of its flow. Nevertheless, the "Brooklyn Bridge Swim" is an annual event where swimmers cross
17082-427: The refineries, but also the facilities of related industries such as manufacturers of paint and varnish, and chemical companies which produced sulfuric acid . It is estimated that, in all, these industrial facilities produced 300,000 US gallons (1,100,000 L; 250,000 imp gal) of waste material each week, which was burnt off, or discarded into the air or the water of the creek. The waste included sludge acid,
17228-573: The result of deregulation of the electrical power industry. The station, which can generate about 20% of the electrical needs of New York City – approximately 2,500 megawatts – receives some of its fuel by oil barge. North of the power plant can be found Socrates Sculpture Park , an illegal dumpsite and abandoned landfill that in 1986 was turned into an outdoor museum, exhibition space for artists, and public park by sculptor Mark di Suvero and local activists. The area also contains Rainey Park, which honors Thomas C. Rainey, who attempted for 40 years to get
17374-708: The river became the location for the limited-access East River Drive , which was later renamed after Franklin Delano Roosevelt , and is universally known by New Yorkers as the "FDR Drive". The road is sometimes at grade, sometimes runs under locations such as the site of the Headquarters of the United Nations and Carl Schurz Park and Gracie Mansion – the mayor's official residence, and is at time double-decked, because Hell Gate provides no room for more landfill. It begins at Battery Park , runs past
17520-402: The river bed. Why the river turns to the east as it approaches the three lower Manhattan bridges is geologically unknown. Roosevelt Island , a long (2-mile (3.2 km)) and narrow (800 feet (240 m)) landmass, lies in the stretch of the river between Manhattan Island and the borough of Queens , roughly from the latitude of Manhattan's East 46th to 86th Streets. The abrupt termination of
17666-532: The river in canoes fashioned from tree trunks in order to fish. Dutch settlement of what became New Amsterdam began in 1623. Some of the earliest of the small settlements in the area were along the west bank of the East River on sites that had previously been Native American settlements. As with the Native Americans, the river was central to their lives for transportation for trading and for fishing. They gathered marsh grass to feed their cattle, and
17812-557: The river, and even after the construction of the Croton Aqueduct (1842) and then the New Croton Aqueduct (1890) gave rise to indoor plumbing , the waste that was flushed away into the sewers , where it mixed with ground runoff, ran directly into the river, untreated. The sewers terminated at the slips where ships docked, until the waste began to build up, preventing dockage, after which the outfalls were moved to
17958-457: The river, under the northern tip of Roosevelt Island, and is expected to not be completed until at least 2026; the Manhattan portion of the tunnel went into service in 2013. Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller founded what is now Rockefeller University in 1901, between 63rd and 64th Streets on the river side of York Avenue , overlooking the river. The university is a research university for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars, primarily in
18104-442: The rocks which, along with the mix of tides, made the Hell Gate stretch of the river so dangerous to navigate. Ebenezer Meriam had organized a subscription to pay Maillefert $ 6,000 to, for instance, reduce "Pot Rock" to provide 24 feet (7.3 m) of depth at low-mean water. While ships continued to run aground (in the 1850s about 2% of ships did so) and petitions continued to call for action, the federal government undertook surveys of
18250-480: The same time that Hell Gate was being cleared, the Harlem River Ship Canal was being planned. When it was completed in 1895, the "back door" to New York's center of ship-borne trade in the docks and warehouses of the East River was open from two directions, through the cleared East River, and from the Hudson River through the Harlem River to the East River. Ironically, though, while both forks of
18396-489: The shoreline of Manhattan and, later, Brooklyn – which continued until the mid-19th century when the state put a stop to it – was an increase in the speed of its current. Buttermilk Channel , the strait that divides Governors Island from Red Hook in Brooklyn, and which is located directly south of the "mouth" of the East River, was in the early 17th century a fordable waterway across which cattle could be driven. Further investigation by Colonel Jonathan Williams determined that
18542-493: The signing of the Dongan Charter , which allowed intertidal land to be owned and sold – the shoreline was "wharfed out" to the high-water mark by constructing retaining walls that were filled in with every conceivable kind of landfill: excrement, dead animals, ships deliberately sunk in place, ship ballast, and muck dredged from the bottom of the river. On the new land were built warehouses and other structures necessary for
18688-660: The south and Flushing River to the east. English Kills originates from a CSO pipe at 465 Johnson Avenue in East Williamsburg. It drains 344,400,000 US gallons (1.304 × 10 L) of sewage annually. The present path of English Kills was straightened in the late 19th century. The Kills is crossed by the LIRR Bushwick Branch and the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge. The East Branch originates at Metropolitan and Onderdonk Avenues, at
18834-989: The span. The Brooklyn Bridge was followed by the Williamsburg Bridge (1903), the Queensboro Bridge (1909), the Manhattan Bridge (1912) and the Hell Gate Railroad Bridge (1916). Later would come the Triborough Bridge (1936), the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (1939), the Throgs Neck Bridge (1961) and the Rikers Island Bridge (1966). In addition, numerous rail tunnels pass under the East River – most of them part of
18980-564: The strait's southern bank near LaGuardia Airport via Flushing Bay . Further west, Luyster Creek drains into the East River in Astoria, Queens . North of Randalls Island , it is joined by the Bronx Kill . Along the east of Wards Island, at approximately the strait's midpoint, it narrows into a channel called Hell Gate , which is spanned by both the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly
19126-399: The time, gentlemen, when you could go in twelve feet of water and you could see the pebbles on the bottom of this river." As the water got more polluted, it darkened, underwater vegetation (such as photosynthesizing seagrass) began dying, and as the seagrass beds declined, the many associated species of their ecosystems declined as well, contributing to the decline of the river. Also harmful
19272-433: The tunnel's financiers, the landmass owes its popular name (after Burmese diplomat U Thant , former Secretary-General of the United Nations ) to the efforts of a group associated with the guru Sri Chinmoy that held mediation meetings on the island in the 1970s. Today, the island is owned by New York State and serves as a migratory bird sanctuary that is closed to visitors. Proceeding north and east from Roosevelt Island,
19418-417: The water, a native pollinator garden, mulched pathways and a plaque detailing the historical significance of the site. Murderer Joel Rifkin dumped a number of his victims into the creek. They were often stuffed into a barrel. Although the wastewater treatment plant has been expanded, even small amounts of rainfall can overwhelm the system and lead to the dumping of raw sewage and street runoff directly into
19564-667: Was a Warren truss bridge that existed from 1905 to 1954. The Penny Bridge, near the current site of the Kosciuszko Bridge, was a swing bridge connecting Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn with Laurel Hill Boulevard in Queens. Various forms of the Penny Bridge existed from 1803 until the Kosciuszko Bridge was completed in 1939. Finally, the Maspeth Plank Road bridge connected the two sections of Maspeth Avenue in Brooklyn and Queens just north of where English Kills and
19710-548: Was built from Gowanus Creek , which emptied into the river. Historically, there were other small streams which emptied into the river, though these and their associated wetlands have been filled in and built over. These small streams included the Harlem Creek, one of the most significant tributaries originating in Manhattan. Other streams that emptied into the East River included the Sawkill in Manhattan, Mill Brook in
19856-515: Was charged with contaminating the creek with animal fats . The plant closed two years later but the smell of burning animals lingered. In 1978 a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on a routine patrol discovered the Greenpoint oil spill , a discharge that lasted another 30 years and spilled in total three times the oil of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In the early 2000s, during a construction boom, construction companies dumped concrete slurry into
20002-602: Was done, and the Civil War soon broke out. In the late 1860s, after the Civil War, Congress realized the military importance of having easily navigable waterways, and charged the Army Corps of Engineers with clearing Hell Gate. Newton estimated that the operation would cost about half as much as the annual losses in shipping. The 2021 book by Thomas Barthel titled Opening the East River: John Newton and
20148-500: Was downgraded to a secondary freight track, most often referred to as the Bushwick Lead Track, and is accessed via LIRR's Fresh Pond Yard. The branch is mostly single-track with a few passing sidings. In May 1997, all freight traffic on the LIRR was privatized and contracted out to the New York and Atlantic Railway , which leased the Fresh Pond Yard and the Bushwick Branch. The original Bushwick passenger terminal from
20294-446: Was first proposed in the late 19th century. The canal would have flushed out the stagnant water from Maspeth Creek and created a direct route between the two waterways, but was opposed by residents of central Queens, who were against the industrialization of what was then farmland. In 1914, surveys were made for the construction of a 5.4-mile (8.7 km) canal to connect Flushing River and Newtown Creek, plans for which dated back at least
20440-634: Was infilled to make way for the treatment plant. Today, the Newtown Creek Nature Walk runs along the remaining spur of the creek. Maspeth Creek starts on the right bank, within Maspeth, Queens , and runs about 1,000 feet (300 m) before emptying into Newtown Creek. Prior to the industrial development of Queens, Maspeth Creek originated on the Ridgewood Plateau, a plateau that separated the watersheds of Newtown Creek to
20586-429: Was issued for the detonating device. After the explosion, the rock debris was dredged and dropped into a deep part of the river. This was not repeated at the later Flood Rock explosion. On October 10, 1885, the Corps carried out the largest explosion in this process, annihilating Flood Rock with 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) of explosives. The blast was felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey (50 miles). It sent
20732-523: Was not yet a part of New York City, meaning that the city's Board of Health had no jurisdiction there, and the Brooklyn Board of Health sided with the polluters in court. Even a report from The New York Times in 1885 that Standard Oil was dumping sludge acid into the creek, covering the banks at low tide, made little difference. By the end of the 19th century, the Times was reporting that the creek
20878-402: Was the general destruction of the once plentiful oyster beds in the waters around the city, and the over-fishing of menhaden , or mossbunker , a small silvery fish which had been used since the time of the Native Americans for fertilizing crops – however it took 8,000 of these schooling fish to fertilize a single acre, so mechanized fishing using the purse seine was developed, and eventually
21024-615: Was the site of one of the greatest disasters in the history of New York City when, in June 1904, the PS General Slocum sank near North Brother Island due to a fire. It was carrying 1,400 German-Americans to a picnic site on Long Island for an annual outing. There were only 321 survivors of the disaster , one of the worst losses of life in the city's long history, and a devastating blow to the Little Germany neighborhood on
21170-531: Was totally devoid of any lifeforms. Oil refineries and distribution depots were concentrated in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Across the creek, in Laurel Hill, later called West Maspeth , chemical plants and copper smelting facilities also polluted the waterway. The largest was the 35-acre (14 ha) Laurel Hill Chemical Works , owned by Phelps Dodge , which was in operation between 1871 and 1983. At its peak
21316-497: Was widely known at the time through letters, diaries and memoirs, and was a factor not only in the attitude of Americans toward the British, but in the negotiations to formally end the war. After the war, East River waterfront development continued once more. New York State legislation, which in 1807 had authorized what would become the Commissioners Plan of 1811 , authorized the creation of new land out to 400 feet from
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