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Mickey Z
Cool Observer
the Department of Homeland Security.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Who put the canal in Canal Street?
Looking around today’s Manhattan provides no hint of its somewhat soupy past. Crisscrossing streams, marshlands, swamps, and ponds were all drained to make way for “progress,” and the island’s largest body of water was the Collect Pond...a name derived from the Dutch “Kalchook,” or Lime Shell Point.
(Collect Pond)
Situated essentially within the bounds of present-day streets Franklin, Worth, Lafayette, and Baxter, the Collect was fished out by the mid 1700s and became the site of a public works program designed to appease the restless, poverty-stricken masses in the early 19th century.
To drain the pond, a canal was built to both the east and west. This canal was later filled in and paved to become, of course, Canal Street. Say goodbye to windblown vessels and wave hello to the internal combustion engine.
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