New York's Dangerous Gowanus Canal Situation

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  • Опубликовано: 30 окт 2024

Комментарии • 580

  • @ITSHISTORY
    @ITSHISTORY  5 месяцев назад +103

    Hey everyone, I’m sorry the audio is messed up on this one, I’ve been living in hotels for over 2 weeks. The cool thing is that the episode was recorded in a literal castle. I’ll be back in the real studio soon! Thank you all for watching! - Socash

    • @classic.cameras
      @classic.cameras 5 месяцев назад +6

      I was wondering. But I do love when you do videos on location so its all cool man.

    • @jed-henrywitkowski6470
      @jed-henrywitkowski6470 5 месяцев назад +3

      Everything good?

    • @mikezabo3134
      @mikezabo3134 5 месяцев назад +5

      What about Coney Island canal between Sea Gate and Sheepshead Bay ?

    • @blubard6105
      @blubard6105 5 месяцев назад +2

      I smoke pot.

    • @georgewetzel4380
      @georgewetzel4380 5 месяцев назад +2

      What is a literal castle?

  • @georgebrill6549
    @georgebrill6549 5 месяцев назад +132

    When I started working on a tugboat in NYC , the captain told me not to fall overboard in the Gowanus Canal or they wouldn't let me back on the boat. I always thought Newtown Creek was worse. But they cleaned up Newtown Creek to the point that I saw Cormorants diving for fish in it before I retired in 2009.

    • @ajbianchi85
      @ajbianchi85 2 месяца назад

      They might’ve cleaned up newtown creek but there is still thousands of gallons of oil left under the ground where newtown meets greenpoint, lic and the east river. The life expectancy in greenpoint is actually lower than the surrounding neighborhoods because the oil has polluted the groundwater. Thanks exxon

  • @adamdrake2020
    @adamdrake2020 5 месяцев назад +33

    My direct ancestor created the first mill on this site, and his mill is one of the pictures in the video. It’s cool to see that and I’d love to see this area become clean and vibrant again.

  • @ATREZ0123
    @ATREZ0123 5 месяцев назад +74

    I grew up a few blocks fron the Canal. The smell back in the 1980's and early 90's was unlike anything I've ever smelled since.
    I would go as far to say that most young people that live in NYC today have never smelled such a stink!
    I still live in the neighborhood and can gladly say that the Gowanus Canal today is nothing like it used to be. Looks and smells much cleaner now. Compared to 30 years ago you wouldnt even believe that its the same waterway!

    • @ITSHISTORY
      @ITSHISTORY  5 месяцев назад +4

      Good change !

    • @opaljk4835
      @opaljk4835 5 месяцев назад +6

      It still has a purplish film. But it’s not nearly as stinky

    • @mikefagan6840
      @mikefagan6840 5 месяцев назад +6

      Since the pumping station was fixed. My mom and Buddy Scotto (funeral parlor) tried to get the pumping station fixed in the early 70s.

    • @metronorthwtrain1452
      @metronorthwtrain1452 4 месяца назад

      Would dredging be an option?

  • @tinetannies4637
    @tinetannies4637 5 месяцев назад +103

    Only in NYC can multi-million $$$ condos facing an EPA Superfund site spin that as "waterfront property". I've lived in Carroll Gardens near the Gowanus for 30 years and have seen the changes.

    • @word42069
      @word42069 5 месяцев назад +2

      progress baby

    • @ryanglaser5336
      @ryanglaser5336 5 месяцев назад +2

      Fisher Island directly faces the Port of Miami 🎉

    • @dubreil07
      @dubreil07 4 месяца назад +2

      It’s a super tiny piece of water relax. As if the Hudson River, Atlantic Ocean waterfront properties doesn’t exist lol

    • @tinetannies4637
      @tinetannies4637 4 месяца назад +4

      @@dubreil07 that wasn't my point

    • @evolvnyc
      @evolvnyc 3 месяца назад +2

      Exactly! New York hipsters will buy literally anything! “We believe in science! Just don’t tell us about any of it!” 😂😂😂

  • @antoniokastrocarlisledemel6617
    @antoniokastrocarlisledemel6617 5 месяцев назад +111

    Ahhh the memories of Gowanus..when I was a kid back in the 90s my big brother used to have me thinking if I fell in there I'd come out a Swamp Thing a la what happened to Emil at the end of Robocop

    • @jasonwomack4064
      @jasonwomack4064 5 месяцев назад +6

      One of the most underrated iconic film moments of the 80's.

    • @MiTBender
      @MiTBender 5 месяцев назад +3

      Freaked me the heck out

    • @johnhanaly2943
      @johnhanaly2943 4 месяца назад

      That's no joke! "Things" roam around down there.

  • @thechuckster6838
    @thechuckster6838 5 месяцев назад +10

    I used to live nearby the Canal. Upon walking near it, you could smell the odor of death coming from there. I didn't know the history of the canal until I watched this video. The story that we received was that there was no flow of the water and it was just a sitting pool with nowhere to go. Thanks for posting this video and clarifying the true nature of this site.

  • @christopherseivard8925
    @christopherseivard8925 5 месяцев назад +18

    Great story. I lived in Carroll Gardens, and rode my bike across the Gowanus daily,on my way to Prospect Park. This was1989, and it did stink! The scent from a nearby coffee roaster made it palatable! When the tidal access was restored, it all improved dramatically. I remember riding the drawbridge on my way to the park, and being waved down by the drawbridge operator. He excitedly pointed out that he had seen a crab! Alive! The bridge op saw this as a sign! I remained skeptical.

  • @robertgushue9845
    @robertgushue9845 5 месяцев назад +34

    I can still remember the horrible odor that originated from the canal when i was growing up in the area in the 1970's and 80's...

    • @lucasrem
      @lucasrem 5 месяцев назад

      The old industry is gone, redevelop it !

    • @WilliamBurkard
      @WilliamBurkard 5 месяцев назад +2

      its etched in our brains and nostrils.

  • @PepePupas
    @PepePupas 5 месяцев назад +15

    I lived in Gowanus for years, right by the draw bridge on 3rd St and man, there were some days when you could smell it with every window and door shut.
    One of the saddest stories was about a dolphin that got trapped in the canal and died because there wasn't enough oxygen in the water.
    I miss and love NY but yeah... it's not for everyone... humans or dolphins.

  • @warrcoww6717
    @warrcoww6717 5 месяцев назад +33

    My friend, Jack Armstrong, swam in the Gowanus Canal just downstream from the Union St bridge in 2015 and is still alive today somehow.

    • @kevinkeeney6693
      @kevinkeeney6693 4 месяца назад +1

      Yikes. Did he loose a bet? Good thing he didn't drink the water.

    • @johnmcglynn4102
      @johnmcglynn4102 4 месяца назад +3

      Isn't he the guy the NIH is looking for?

    • @abigalanderson7494
      @abigalanderson7494 4 месяца назад +3

      That must be the origin story of streach-armstrong

    • @evolvnyc
      @evolvnyc 3 месяца назад

      Every swimmer I’ve seen in the East River covered themselves in Vaseline so nothing could get into their pores. Seems totally normal. 😂

  • @frankm496
    @frankm496 5 месяцев назад +53

    You should do one on the Kill van Kull/ Arthur Kill. The waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey. There was raw sewage pumped into that waterway for over 100 years from factories along it. Very high levels of PCBs and others. It was reported as being one of the worst polluted waterways in the US. There is some good news in the improvement of the environment reported due some efforts from NJ/NY. Hopefully there is a positive trend. Anyway, thank you for another informative video

    • @gabegall
      @gabegall 5 месяцев назад +9

      Not to mention all the medical waste dumped in the 1980s and 1990s... They finally removed the the "Warning - Do not Eat the Toxic Crabs" sign from when I was growing up.

    • @prodigalpriest
      @prodigalpriest 5 месяцев назад +4

      Sounds like another Superfund Site, for sure.

    • @christopher9196
      @christopher9196 2 месяца назад

      Yes. I worked out there near IMTT. Google says there's more hazardous leaks every year than there are days.

  • @snittykitty1
    @snittykitty1 5 месяцев назад +47

    I work in the neighborhood, yes, lots of construction everywhere and the water is super smelly while you cross the bridges. I do hope it gets the continued clean up.

    • @theequalizer9154
      @theequalizer9154 5 месяцев назад +12

      Who knows if that Gowanus Canal will ever be cleaned. I read somewhere, sometime ago, that in the 1860s, captains used to take their sailing ships through the Gowanus Canal to kill Barnacles off the ships hulls.

    • @yankees29
      @yankees29 5 месяцев назад +3

      I worked across the street from it a few years ago. It was like a gate with sanitation signs on it I think. I trying to remember.

    • @roryoconnor4989
      @roryoconnor4989 5 месяцев назад +5

      They’d have to dredge the entire canal and replace all the soil surrounding it. Same thing in Wburg, when I lived there 15 years ago before it turned into Soho 2, every time a building broke ground you could smell the old Standard Oil petroleum in the dirt.

    • @applegal3058
      @applegal3058 5 месяцев назад +1

      ​@@theequalizer9154wow, that's insane!

    • @richarddevenezia8186
      @richarddevenezia8186 5 месяцев назад +1

      Cleaning it up and returning it to a brackish saltwater marsh -- still stinky

  • @jhardy0786
    @jhardy0786 5 месяцев назад +67

    I grew up in Brooklyn and lived there my whole life and when I was a kid we use to bet people to go in and swim for five minutes no one ever had the nerve to take the bet

    • @theequalizer9154
      @theequalizer9154 5 месяцев назад +8

      I recall that Burt Reynolds did a movie around there called, "Shamus". You could actually see how run down the Gowanus Canal was in the early 1970s.

    • @roryoconnor4989
      @roryoconnor4989 5 месяцев назад +13

      There was a whale that got turned around like 10 years ago and ended up in the canal. It became so poisoned and disoriented that it rammed its head into the walls until it died.

    • @vlosa2439
      @vlosa2439 5 месяцев назад +14

      this guy that made the video doesn't know a damn thing about this area of Brooklyn. he said the dutch purchased this area when infact they killed off the Lenape that wanted to stay there and waged war on the lanape that wanted to defend themselves. this area still belongs to the Lenape of Marechkawick.

    • @Chrisk1330
      @Chrisk1330 5 месяцев назад

      @@vlosa2439tell us how you really feel

    • @WilliamBurkard
      @WilliamBurkard 5 месяцев назад +4

      but many mobsters took their final swim in the gowanus!

  • @tickticktickBOOOOM
    @tickticktickBOOOOM 5 месяцев назад +11

    I remember stories of a monster living in the Gowanus Canal from back when I was a kid. I always said anything that can live in there can't die.

  • @ruthtallmer9506
    @ruthtallmer9506 5 месяцев назад +3

    It's been REALLY cleaned up & it's becoming a lovely waterway once again.

  • @luisreyes1963
    @luisreyes1963 5 месяцев назад +51

    It's a miracle the Gowanus Canal didn't suffer the same fate that befell Cleveland's Cuyahoga River back in the 70's as it was so polluted, it caught fire. ☣️

    • @joestrike8537
      @joestrike8537 5 месяцев назад +3

      As memorialized in a Randy Newman song with an extremely evocative name: "Burn On." (!)

    • @larry648
      @larry648 5 месяцев назад +4

      The Rouge River in Detroit burned too, 1969.

    • @musicforaarre
      @musicforaarre 5 месяцев назад +4

      If it caught fire, then that would only help to burn off the nasty chemicals, and make it cleaner. 😆🤣 Aarre Peltomaa of Mississauga, Ontario

    • @BigPoppieSeed
      @BigPoppieSeed 5 месяцев назад +1

      @@musicforaarre okay, well then that makes all the polution acceptable...?
      "just burn it off, everything will be just fine."

    • @patentexperts1675
      @patentexperts1675 5 месяцев назад +2

      Buffalo River in Buffalo NY

  • @jkryanspark
    @jkryanspark 5 месяцев назад +27

    Thank goodness we had talented artists and illustrators from before the age of photography to show us what life was like in New York back in the day when it was still rural. The 'before and after' is startling.

  • @daewooparts
    @daewooparts 5 месяцев назад +35

    I remember several decades ago a whale 🐋 accidentally swam up the Gowanus & soon died ,we called him "Sludgie the Whale" a take on the Carvel icecream cake 🐳 called Fudgie the Whale

    • @ghost-ez2zn
      @ghost-ez2zn 5 месяцев назад +2

      I remember both the whale and the ice cream cake. From Carvel.

    • @ekoller
      @ekoller 5 месяцев назад +1

      Classic

    • @mikefagan6840
      @mikefagan6840 5 месяцев назад

      Yep

  • @wmichaeldipaola9086
    @wmichaeldipaola9086 5 месяцев назад +66

    One pathogen you did not list is venereal bacteria! A few years back a car went into the Canal, the driver got out of the car before it went in. A passer-by not knowing this jumped into the Canal to rescue, only to find out nobody was in danger. He was admitted to the hospital and had to be treated, shots, etc. because anybody who is crazy enough to go in that water is required to get hospital treatment, according to the newspaper article I read at the time!

    • @jomama5186
      @jomama5186 5 месяцев назад +6

      How interesting, sad, shameful, and scary !

    • @MADGUNSMONSTER
      @MADGUNSMONSTER 5 месяцев назад +4

      The needles you have to get if you fall in that water is Iron Maiden like.

  • @marshalltito
    @marshalltito 5 месяцев назад +229

    Gowanus is not connected to the Hudson River. It's below both the Hudson and East River in the upper bay. The gowanus is currently lined with multimillion dollar condos and a Whole Foods. Yes there's still some industry but that is shrinking while housing, entertainment and more craft type industries are growing. The intro makes more sense referring to late 20th century gowanus than the last 20 years

    • @stemdeckesupreme164
      @stemdeckesupreme164 5 месяцев назад +24

      This guy Hudson rivers

    • @ITSHISTORY
      @ITSHISTORY  5 месяцев назад +57

      I’m always amazed at how gritty places transform, I saw the same thing happen throughout Chicago. Thanks for your comment!

    • @nordisk1874
      @nordisk1874 5 месяцев назад +12

      The Hudson isn’t even near Manhattan.

    • @theequalizer9154
      @theequalizer9154 5 месяцев назад +22

      I can verify those observations. Seen it myself.
      Still, the legend of the four criminals who tried to escape the police by jumping into the Gowanus Canal, and shortly later died of poisonings, is still prevalent amongst people in Brooklyn, New York.

    • @pedropuckerstein4670
      @pedropuckerstein4670 5 месяцев назад +17

      This is why I stopped watching hood videos. Too many errors or he doesn’t know how to read a map. Also video is too long.

  • @alpaykasal2902
    @alpaykasal2902 4 месяца назад +10

    You knew what color pens the pen factory made that day... because they'd dump the excess ink which would float and swirl. Eerie bubbles still gurgle from the bottom, bringing shiny color slicks up to the surface.

  • @n8spectacular
    @n8spectacular 5 месяцев назад +46

    Ryan, you skipped the part about how in 2010, Whole Foods Market paid over $4 million to help clean up the Gowanus Canal, so they could open their first store in Brooklyn.

    • @howwitty
      @howwitty 5 месяцев назад +3

      It was designated a superfund site in 2010. Why did Whole Foods have to pay that much if the Federal government was supposed to pay for the cleanup?

    • @RyshusMojo1
      @RyshusMojo1 5 месяцев назад +11

      @@howwitty Whole Foods wasn't required to pay, they spent $4M+ for the Virtue Signaling points.

    • @SnowRaver-p2v
      @SnowRaver-p2v 5 месяцев назад

      ​@@howwitty it's like a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. The 4m probably went straight into some politicians pocket and whole foods probably gets a massive tax break or straight up exemption

    • @tlstechtalk
      @tlstechtalk 5 месяцев назад +3

      Whole Foods also received massive tax breaks from NYC.

    • @birthdaynick80
      @birthdaynick80 5 месяцев назад

      @@RyshusMojo1 $4M+ is just virtue signaling?? What would it take to make it meaningful for them to do help in the clean up?

  • @frankshifreen
    @frankshifreen 5 месяцев назад +21

    The name Gowanus means the sleeper or dreamer in the Lenape language/ It was where the Canarsie Indians did their ceremonies

    • @alpaykasal2902
      @alpaykasal2902 4 месяца назад

      Thank you for this reply.

    • @evolvnyc
      @evolvnyc 3 месяца назад +1

      What a sick tragedy we have made of it.

    • @martyjewell5683
      @martyjewell5683 Месяц назад

      Far out, thanks.

  • @stephencurry8552
    @stephencurry8552 5 месяцев назад +78

    Pathetic how this nation treats its waterways.

    • @nenaj1
      @nenaj1 5 месяцев назад +2

      Not everywhere

    • @lucasrem
      @lucasrem 5 месяцев назад +2

      In Brooklyn, We need money to clean it, redevelop it.
      The industry is gone, but the Dutch never left.

    • @stephencurry8552
      @stephencurry8552 5 месяцев назад +2

      @@lucasrem Given who will win the election. Ecology will continue to be taken seriously and hopefully, waterways get grants for repair.

    • @tj9585
      @tj9585 5 месяцев назад

      Thank the Caucasians every piece of land they touch is ruined.

    • @ChrisWijtmans
      @ChrisWijtmans 5 месяцев назад +1

      @@lucasrem the dutch left long ago what are you talking about.

  • @scottwooledge6387
    @scottwooledge6387 5 месяцев назад +12

    They are cutting so many clean up corners to convert this area to housing. Residents will have so many serious health problems and there will be much litigation.

    • @andrewstraub131
      @andrewstraub131 5 месяцев назад

      I mean I grew up there during the 80s 90s and I’m 44 and I think it gave me super immune function and I can ignore any smell

  • @comradecid
    @comradecid 5 месяцев назад +26

    our local mascot is a three-eyed fish

  • @marcsarfati3291
    @marcsarfati3291 5 месяцев назад +53

    The FDNY fire house in the area is called
    The Cancer House

    • @leeannmcdermott8313
      @leeannmcdermott8313 5 месяцев назад +1

      I knew a firefighter in the 90’s who worked there and ended up with cancer in his late 20’s but I didn’t know it was related to the firehouse.

    • @marcsarfati3291
      @marcsarfati3291 5 месяцев назад +3

      @@leeannmcdermott8313 it’s not the firehouse but a lot firemen in the house get cancer. Also at young age 😢

    • @leeannmcdermott8313
      @leeannmcdermott8313 5 месяцев назад +2

      @@marcsarfati3291 yea so the firehouse has to be toxic, prob water contamination. I wonder if the people who live in the surrounding area of the firehouse has the same problem?

    • @marcsarfati3291
      @marcsarfati3291 5 месяцев назад +3

      @@leeannmcdermott8313 the surrounding area is “low income”. Most of the area is under a very busy highway as well.
      No homeless tents but very industrial

    • @markdagostino4891
      @markdagostino4891 5 месяцев назад +1

      @@marcsarfati3291 lol it is not low income anymore what are you saying?

  • @sjdtmv
    @sjdtmv 5 месяцев назад +21

    Is it only me but I can see the word ANUS in Gowanus, which describes how it was treated for centuries

    • @pedropuckerstein4670
      @pedropuckerstein4670 5 месяцев назад

      Not only you .....

    • @musicforaarre
      @musicforaarre 5 месяцев назад +1

      Go Anus !! That's funny !! I'm going to remember that one. It's catchy. Aarre Peltomaa

  • @BrooklynAttorney
    @BrooklynAttorney 3 месяца назад +1

    I have lived near the Gowanus Canal for the past 25 years. This area has changed greatly. Your video makes no mention of the massive cleanup of the canal over the past few years.

  • @natal777
    @natal777 5 месяцев назад +6

    I will never forget the way it smelled while driving over the Kosciuszko Bridge on the BQE

    • @harveywachtel1091
      @harveywachtel1091 5 месяцев назад +3

      That's Newtown Creek.

    • @natal777
      @natal777 5 месяцев назад

      @@harveywachtel1091 All I can remember was the stink I left NY in 1996

  • @Jimbeast
    @Jimbeast 5 месяцев назад +4

    I work in a studio in Gowanus and over the past year, several enormous residential towers have been constructed. Unfortunately, the water cleanup is not moving as quickly as the new construction. Architectural renders show people kayaking in the canal, but it still stinks and I will never touch that water. On the other hand, I watched a goose and a duck hunting thru the mud next to the Lowe’s parking lot

    • @Comrade_Marius
      @Comrade_Marius 5 месяцев назад

      I’m an environmental scientists in gowanus. The main sources of contamination is not the canal itself but the former factories that once surrounded it which polluted the ground water. All construction here has to fully clean up the pollution on which the building stands on.

  • @chillowl4me619
    @chillowl4me619 5 месяцев назад +18

    Do you see at @ 6:14 that green building in the corner? Gone, you see the lots all around those blocks in the same frame? All gone, see the lots with the trucks? The next frame where you see all those white trucks? All these lots are gone, replaced with condos and high rent lofts. They’ve absolutely leveled this area without taking care of the water source right next to it. This should tell you about the greed in New York City, I live on Bond street within the 300s near Union street. I’ve lived here my whole life, I cannot tell you of another waterway I find more stinky, or more polluted than the Canal. My homies and me used to say if you fall in there you come out a ninja turtle. However if you do fall in there what you would need is immediate hospitalization. I wouldn’t ever call this a river or anything near a river. It is by far one of the most smelly things you will find in New York. Union street, (Carroll street used to have a bridge), and 3rd street all have bridges that go over it, tbh I would say that I’m so used to the smell that sometimes I can’t smell it, that should tell you something about my health. The truth is I love Gowanas, and Carroll park but I cannot continue to live here, tbh it has nothing to do with the canal! It’s the area in general, they have made this area condo city within the last 2 years out of nowhere, they’re pushing native New Yorkers out like me who can’t afford those kinds of rent, congestion, and bills. I love my little area next to the canal, but unfortunately I’m fleeing north brooklyn and trading it for south brooklyn. Thank you for making this video, my part of brooklyn doesn’t get enough love

    • @MADGUNSMONSTER
      @MADGUNSMONSTER 5 месяцев назад

      Agreed with your entire post. If if ever REALLY FLOODS, it's going to be a Bacterial Nightmare. In regards to South Brooklyn, please do your research first. There are some areas that were decently middle class a couple of decades ago that are now low class to bordering lower middle class. (if that makes any sense)

  • @towgod7985
    @towgod7985 5 месяцев назад +3

    I haven't been to NYC in years, and never heard of the river being mentioned. Thanks for the video. Cheers.

  • @ottopartz1
    @ottopartz1 5 месяцев назад +4

    Reminds me of the bubbly creek down where the Chicago stockyards used to be! I remember seeing it gurgle on warm days years ago.

  • @bobbygermano9926
    @bobbygermano9926 5 месяцев назад +7

    The person who started the first real effort to clean up the GC, was the great Buddy Scotto.
    Ive seen people jump in, canoe, even jet ski. There are even dormant fans under the water,
    As well as other things.

    • @mariebelladonna437
      @mariebelladonna437 5 месяцев назад +9

      Dormant fans?

    • @cathycoryell2351
      @cathycoryell2351 5 месяцев назад

      What is a dormant fan, please?

    • @mikefagan6840
      @mikefagan6840 5 месяцев назад

      My mom worked with Buddy on getting the pumping station fixed in the early 70s. Deaf eared politicians.

  • @MissFoxification
    @MissFoxification 5 месяцев назад +8

    Once they fix the flooding in the area and get it up to a liveable standard that land is going to be worth a fortune.

  • @robgrey6183
    @robgrey6183 5 месяцев назад

    I grew up in Brooklyn, maybe a mile southeast of Gowanus Bay.
    I got out of there as soon as I could.
    I now live in the mountains of Teton County, Wyoming.
    Thank you for validating my reasons to leave.

  • @edsel762
    @edsel762 5 месяцев назад +1

    Another great video. I can appreciate all of the work that goes into these videos. Thank you.

  • @ProG3rmanator
    @ProG3rmanator 5 месяцев назад +2

    Really good doc! I’ve been to the Canals numerous times during my life. However, you did forget to mention a few interesting facts about the canal. For starters, the canal was instrumental in transporting much of the Brownstone used to build Brooklyn’s iconic Brownstone homes. Also, you didn’t mention sludgie the whale! Nor the beautiful Newtown creek nature walk along the canal. In addition, you will see ducks floating on the water from time to time. This signals that the water is getting cleaner, despite still being unsafe for humans. If you’re interested, check out an artist name George Trakkas. He was pretty influential in bringing attention to the canal back in the day.

  • @tortuga7160
    @tortuga7160 5 месяцев назад +10

    Steps from the indstrial ravaged gowanus canal, in the heartland of america

    • @chiphill4856
      @chiphill4856 5 месяцев назад +1

      TMR!!

    • @nestum23
      @nestum23 Месяц назад

      @@tortuga7160 Sam Seder, what a trucking nightmare!

  • @The-NightWatchman
    @The-NightWatchman 5 месяцев назад +1

    A very timely history, and message for NYC.

  • @Chips2323
    @Chips2323 4 месяца назад

    Professor Socash I must have missed this one, glad I never lived in NYC, stay safe and be at peace...

  • @StephLyons-s7e
    @StephLyons-s7e 3 месяца назад +1

    So I'm the 3rd generation in my family to become a dock builder / timberman local 1556 NYC , our job has many different jobs that are all specialized trades , exa. Pile driving, underwater welding and construction , divers tender , bridges and tunnels , and much much more. We have been on every bridge , tunnel , and every single body of water whether stagnant or moving ,
    Every foundation in Manhattan has to be reinforced and is under the water table so we also do foundations.
    Ever wonder how bridges are built especially the support and the foundation that's under the water ? , yup , that's us.

  • @josephwarra5043
    @josephwarra5043 4 месяца назад +4

    "Our neighborhood is classy,
    We've got rats as big as Lassie!"
    -- old NY song

  • @antondzajajurca7797
    @antondzajajurca7797 5 месяцев назад

    Really enjoyed this video. Greetings from Slovenia, EU.

  • @rezn8
    @rezn8 5 месяцев назад +3

    Love that you mentioned Sam! That is why I clicked on this video

  • @shroomzzz
    @shroomzzz 5 месяцев назад +2

    I grew up on the bayshore of New Jersey, just south of the raritan bay. While no one has proven a causal link, i can tell you that i know many, many people that died of carious cancers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. This is not a New York problem, this is an America problem.

  • @James_1337
    @James_1337 5 месяцев назад +13

    Hey, Majority Report! Their intro is what made me click on this.

    • @rezn8
      @rezn8 5 месяцев назад +1

      Same!

    • @mochynddu723
      @mochynddu723 5 месяцев назад +1

      Me too.

  • @voidfilan5055
    @voidfilan5055 5 месяцев назад +7

    Remember this river🤔😜🤪from All in the Family episode ‼️

  • @ingibingi2000
    @ingibingi2000 5 месяцев назад +11

    Alright shoutout to majority report

    • @eltoppdog
      @eltoppdog 5 месяцев назад +3

      Left is best!

  • @blackhillsrider2626
    @blackhillsrider2626 5 месяцев назад +12

    Thanks NY for giving us the worlds largest living petri dish.

  • @ocsrc
    @ocsrc 5 месяцев назад +1

    You really should do a video about Cohoes NY and the water infrastructure and the mills and railroads and canals.
    The amount of history is incredible in this city and most of it has disappeared and is forgotten

  • @gtomark71
    @gtomark71 5 месяцев назад +3

    Affectionately referred to as Lavender Lake by Brooklynites.

  • @R2RO1
    @R2RO1 5 месяцев назад +2

    Hopefully, there's a future episode in the works for Newtown creek

  • @kennethvenezia4400
    @kennethvenezia4400 5 месяцев назад +9

    The canal is fine. I swim in it with my children 3 times a week. We also catch eel in there and eat it every day of the week. My son is growing fingers on his face, and I'm wondering why.

  • @pfrstreetgang7511
    @pfrstreetgang7511 5 месяцев назад +29

    Only in NY would they build overly priced "luxury" apartments and get people silly enough to reside there.

    • @KarenOCallaghan-u5o
      @KarenOCallaghan-u5o 5 месяцев назад +2

      I no longer live in Brooklyn, but I remember the canal very well.
      When they first started building the apartments my reaction was. “Why would anyone consider living by the Gowanus Canal a selling point?”

    • @dennismiddlebrooks7027
      @dennismiddlebrooks7027 5 месяцев назад +1

      @@KarenOCallaghan-u5o The canal is not nearly as polluted now as it once was. The canal no longer smells and the surface is clear and no long multi-colored with contaminants.

    • @Comrade_Marius
      @Comrade_Marius 5 месяцев назад +6

      I’m an environmental scientist that works in gowanus. There’s an insane amount of environmental cleanup required for these buildings to go up..but I still wouldn’t live here lol

    • @samparsons8096
      @samparsons8096 4 месяца назад

      @@dennismiddlebrooks7027 I live a neighborhood away from the canal and frequently visit businesses that exist there. To say the canal "no longer smells" and the "surface is clear" is a clear giveaway you are a real estate agent.

  • @Mrch33ky
    @Mrch33ky 5 месяцев назад +1

    It's a perfect metaphor for NYC.

  • @DT-wp4hk
    @DT-wp4hk 5 месяцев назад +2

    8:48 pumping station at buttlerstreet😂
    Nyc does have humor😂

  • @JPaul60
    @JPaul60 5 месяцев назад +2

    All that money that was allocated was most likely misused or stolen. That's how things roll in New York.

  • @eltoppdog
    @eltoppdog 5 месяцев назад +2

    Majority Report listener here

  • @mtnman1984
    @mtnman1984 5 месяцев назад +9

    Man, Sam Seder isn't kidding

  • @hootinouts
    @hootinouts 4 месяца назад

    Fascinating. Philadelphia's two rivers: The Delaware and the Schuylkill were polluted like the Gowanus. Many of the former creeks were converted to sewers that are still very much in service.

  • @willrush1962
    @willrush1962 5 месяцев назад +7

    You should do a episode about dead horse bay

  • @kevinmcdowell9074
    @kevinmcdowell9074 5 месяцев назад +1

    This just goes to show how absolutely fleeced we are as consumers. The most polluted areas on the east coast, is also one of the most expensive. Good job America.

  • @pbee73
    @pbee73 5 месяцев назад +6

    You might hear some Brooklynites refer to that canal as “perfume bay”.

    • @BKDBut
      @BKDBut 5 месяцев назад

      Literally never heard that

    • @mikefagan6840
      @mikefagan6840 5 месяцев назад

      Lavender lake

  • @ChiefCowpie
    @ChiefCowpie 2 месяца назад +1

    My brother who lives on Long Island wears a Gowanus Yacht Club t-shirt. How is a prestigious yacht club able to flourish if the water is so stinky?

  • @windvale
    @windvale 5 месяцев назад +10

    Gowanus is a perfect metaphor for New York in general. Gross...

  • @jetsons101
    @jetsons101 5 месяцев назад +2

    Ryan, good product placement for LOWE'S, that and Home Depot my two favorite stores.
    The cannal would probably burn with the toss of a match like the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland did years back.

  • @atarian345
    @atarian345 5 месяцев назад +4

    You can make some spicy seltzer using water from the Gowanus canal

  • @tweezerjam
    @tweezerjam 5 месяцев назад

    Flying over the canal in 3d on google earth is pretty cool. Some rough neighborhoods but neat industry as well.

  • @houseofsolomon2440
    @houseofsolomon2440 5 месяцев назад +6

    Ya think any stolen guns or ones used in the commission of a crime were dumped in the canal? 😂

    • @Lerf8
      @Lerf8 5 месяцев назад

      Hudson

  • @fifteen8
    @fifteen8 5 месяцев назад +1

    Very good video. Actually, Sam Seder says "We are broadcasting live, steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America - downtown Brooklyn, USA."

  • @tributarytraveler5510
    @tributarytraveler5510 5 месяцев назад

    Good stuff thx 4 the efforts

  • @prawnstar9213
    @prawnstar9213 5 месяцев назад +5

    Don’t ever joke around and push someone in

    • @anthonymolden4684
      @anthonymolden4684 5 месяцев назад

      People used to jump in from time to time in the 90s during parties over there, with death and other serious consequences.

  • @oldsledpurgatory3595
    @oldsledpurgatory3595 5 месяцев назад +3

    I believe Mad Magazine refered to this as the "Yecch Factor" back in the 70's. Always seemed completely plausible to me.

  • @hanzzarkov7690
    @hanzzarkov7690 5 месяцев назад

    'broadcasting steps from the industrially ravaged gowanus canal'. It's why Im watching this well presented tragic story, actually

  • @racatiwood
    @racatiwood 5 месяцев назад +1

    "Broadcasting live, steps from the industrially-ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America: downtown Brooklyn, USA..."

  • @bobbysquinch5085
    @bobbysquinch5085 4 месяца назад +1

    Majority Report says “industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal”

  • @ocsrc
    @ocsrc 5 месяцев назад +1

    I love watching the CSOs ( Combined Sewer Overflows )
    Especially when it rains as billions of gallons of raw sewage pours into the rivers every hour
    And the smell, you haven't lived till you smell the CSOs start flowing when it rains

  • @robertkent4929
    @robertkent4929 5 месяцев назад +1

    I would love to know how exactly this canal and the river are to be cleaned

  • @johnstraley9057
    @johnstraley9057 5 месяцев назад +1

    Years ago I worked one summer in Long Island City. The scene at 0:05 was very nearby my walking route from the Hunters Point subway station.

    • @BKDBut
      @BKDBut 5 месяцев назад

      Huh? 0:05 is nowhere near LIC.

    • @johnstraley9057
      @johnstraley9057 5 месяцев назад

      @@BKDBut curious which crossing is the scene in?

    • @BKDBut
      @BKDBut 5 месяцев назад

      @@johnstraley9057 That's the BQE from the point of the Gowanus going out to the Bay. The picture is likely taken on the 9th street bridge, underneath the Smith-9th St station for F/G train

  • @javonsteadman4276
    @javonsteadman4276 5 месяцев назад +2

    You have to do one on far rockaway

  • @yegsdems-kp8cq
    @yegsdems-kp8cq 5 месяцев назад +5

    My grandfather fought at the Battle of Gowanus Canal.

  • @musicforaarre
    @musicforaarre 5 месяцев назад

    Excellent video. I had no idea that the Gowanus was 'that' nasty ! Would you also do a sister video about the Newtown Creek just to the north ? It has much history also. Aarre Peltomaa

  • @bindig1
    @bindig1 5 месяцев назад +1

    So that stuff growing in the canal is basically a mutant monster. Creepy

  • @JerryFisher
    @JerryFisher 5 месяцев назад +1

    Does anyone know what that red/brown brick with white trim building is on the poster for this video? It's rather elegant, considering where it stands.

  • @eduardofero
    @eduardofero 3 месяца назад

    Place with beautiful name
    👏

  • @whatifum8154
    @whatifum8154 5 месяцев назад +1

    Is there a chance you’ll ever do a video about Las Vegas?

  • @iorr98
    @iorr98 5 месяцев назад +2

    That's free market economy 101, the freedom to pollute and passing on the burden and cost to the community.

    • @kenneth9874
      @kenneth9874 4 месяца назад +1

      You should visit red china or some countries from the soviet bloc...

    • @iorr98
      @iorr98 4 месяца назад

      @@kenneth9874 I know we outsourced our pollution to China, they manufacture the crap that we consume.

  • @marioncobaretti2280
    @marioncobaretti2280 5 месяцев назад +2

    Im sure in the colonial days it was mainly a septic system with an occasional brown breads floating by.

    • @musicforaarre
      @musicforaarre 5 месяцев назад

      In London in the early 1800's, there were covered booths in which people could shit into the river 'Thamesis' Thames directly. The Thames estuary was a stenchy place. Because of the sewers built, no more turds float in the river.
      Aarre Peltomaa

  • @dquinn8344
    @dquinn8344 5 месяцев назад +2

    What a disaster...About 6-7 years ago there was a news report of a Dolphin swimming in the canal...Coney Island creek is another one of these disasters but they are all around coastal NY and NJ...

    • @Sky-y5i1b
      @Sky-y5i1b 5 месяцев назад

      Remember that, they were trying to save him but unfortunately died, wondered how he got there into that canal, it was highly unusual.

  • @jangles1839
    @jangles1839 5 месяцев назад +1

    Thanks again for another interesting piece Ryan. I truly appreciate your attention to detail in each item that you bring us. I'm a huge history buff and enjoy just about anything I can get on different places around the nation and beyond! God bless! ~ Scott 💙🙏🏻

  • @thomaspenny4183
    @thomaspenny4183 5 месяцев назад +1

    Rest in peace. New York City !

  • @choossuck7653
    @choossuck7653 5 месяцев назад +3

    Went to NYC for the first time ever last year in December. I did not want to go to times square at all. We started by going to WTC then they wanted times square. Ended up leaving by 3. Im not going with the same people again

    • @G_v._Losinj2_ImportantPlaylist
      @G_v._Losinj2_ImportantPlaylist 5 месяцев назад

      If you want to go to BK you can go to bars and places near Williamsburg and Flatbush. Bushwick Ave Flatbush Ave area is hipstery w/ bars & restaurants.
      Being in Manhattan (the City) you can go to some cool museums and bars/restaurants.
      Downtown mainly. There’s a cool bar I sometimes stop at “169” a few blocks from the Bk Bridge.
      Uptown if you want Chimichurris or some coke/ecstasy lol.

  • @chlve
    @chlve 3 месяца назад +1

    The industrially ravaged Gowanus canal in the heartland of America: downtown Brooklyn USA

  • @SDWNJ
    @SDWNJ 5 месяцев назад +2

    When we were kids my friend used to jokingly refer to it as the Iguanas.

  • @HiddenPalm
    @HiddenPalm 5 месяцев назад +1

    13:28 There is no "New City's Community College" by that name. Perhaps you meant BMCC, Borough of Manhattan Community College? CUNY (City University of New York) has numerous community colleges in NYC.

  • @FRANKRIO-jv1sq
    @FRANKRIO-jv1sq 5 месяцев назад +1

    🥃👴🏻 I SWIM IN DUH GOWANUS EVERY SINGLE DAY

  • @Sky-y5i1b
    @Sky-y5i1b 5 месяцев назад

    Nice historical video, it’s amazing how the money allocated for improving Gowanus canal area was so little, yet the politicos managed to bypass the serious problem of Gowanus canal contamination by rezoning for residential use, crazy, the area still probably not fit to live in because of Gowanus canal. SMH!