I have finally gotten the time to begin wandering around parts of New York that I don't know, so I went to the Gowanus Canal area of Brooklyn. The Gowanus Canal is a short canal (originally a stream) that is a branch of New York harbor. It famous for being one of the most polluted sites in the United States, and is now an EPA superfund site. The pollution was/is both industrial and sewage related. It's the kind of water that if a teenager in a horror movie fell into it, he or she might emerge as a mutant toxic avenger. It was originally a heavily industrialized site, now very little of that industry is left. It is, however, between the Park Slope and Carroll Gardens areas of Brooklyn, meaning that it is valuable real estate, so , in the ways of New York, it is being redeveloped. So next to the stink of the canal, a metal scrapyard and abandoned industrial buildings, there is a Whole Foods and new condos. There was a New Yorker cover which satirized this phenomenon.
So I went to wander and take pictures, looking as always, for color and geometry, as well as the unusual and unexpected.
Well, the canal looks rather pleasant from this angle, but don't even think of touching the water.
And there is a beautiful old wooden bridge:
New condos, with industrial ruins in the foreground:
An old water tower across from the new condos:
There was an extraordinary old abandoned power plant, which at a certain point became a squatter's paradise, nicknamed "The Batcave"
The blogger Nathan Kensinger posted this photo of the interior:
Then there were lots of other things I saw:
Piles of scrap metal:
And all those water bottles:
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