FNY On The Gowanus Canal, AKA Lavendar Lake
Before there was the Gowanus Canal, there was the Gowanus Creek, Forgotten NY informs us this week in its latest installment. In 1848, developer Edwin Litchfield formed the Brooklyn Improvement Company for the purpose of dredging the Gowanus Creek, then a fresh stream, and making it vessel-worthy. Once the new waterway was built, barges were…
Before there was the Gowanus Canal, there was the Gowanus Creek, Forgotten NY informs us this week in its latest installment. In 1848, developer Edwin Litchfield formed the Brooklyn Improvement Company for the purpose of dredging the Gowanus Creek, then a fresh stream, and making it vessel-worthy. Once the new waterway was built, barges were able to bring in sandstone from New Jersey for the construction of the brownstones in neighboring Cobble Hill and Park Slope. The area’s growth had the unintended side effect of polluting the canal, from raw sewage to industrial pollutants. As early as the 1880s, we learn, the canal was “foul and miasmic”, its color changed to a dark Pepto-Bismol shade that prompted locals to call it “Lavender Lake.”
Gowanus Canal [Forgotten NY]
“Lavender Lake” also alluded to the nauseating stench that arose from the Canal after a heavy rain, especially during the hot summer months. Fortunately, that no longer happens.