The Gowanus Canal - North

Butler Street

The "headwaters" of the Gowanus Canal are a pumping station built in 1911 to pump seawater through a tunnel that brings water from Buttermilk Channel in upper New York Bay to the west and creates a waterflow out of the canal into Gowanus Bay. The facility features a single 7-foot-diameter propeller driven by a 600 horsepower (500 kW) electric motor that can move 200 million gallons of water per day.

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Gowanus Canal Pumping Station (Butler St side)

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Gowanus Canal Pumping Station

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Looking south at the Gowanus Canal from the pumping station

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Gowanus Canal Pumping Station (Douglass St side)

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Gowanus Canal Pumping Station

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Swirling water from the pumping station

Across the street from the pumping station is the Brooklyn chapter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Note the unused horse trough in front of the building "Presented to the ASPCA by Edith Bowdoin 1913" that is similar to a pair of troughs she placed in Central Park and Flushing.

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Brooklyn ASPCA - 233 Butler St

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Brooklyn ASPCA

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Bowdoin horse trough

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Brooklyn ASPCA (Rogers Memorial)

Just to the northeast of the pumping station is Wyckoff Gardens, a 527-unit NYC housing authority development that opened on December 31, 1966.

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Wyckoff Gardens - Baltic at Nevins St

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Wyckoff Gardens

Douglass Street

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Douglass St dead end into gate at Gowanus Canal

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Douglass St

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Various states of row houses on Douglass St

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Round tower south of Carroll St

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Live lobster trucks - Nevins at Baltic Sts

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Live lobster trucks

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Scranton Lehigh Coal Co - Nevins at Douglass St

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Nevins St north of Douglass

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Thomas Greene Playground

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Gowanus Houses looming in the distance

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C-Town and old residential building - Bond at Douglass Sts

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Old row house on Douglass St

Degraw Street

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Gowanus Canal looking north from east bank at Degraw St

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Dead convertible - Custom Auto Upholstery - Degraw St

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Gowanus Canal looking south from east bank at Degraw St

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Birdhouses on east bank at Degraw St

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All City Storage - Bond at Degraw Sts

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All City Storage

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All City Storage

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Degraw Street dead end into the west bank of the Gowanus Canal

Sackett Street

Sergio Allegretti began a coal and ice company in 1937 that later branched out into distribution of heating oil as the Bayside Fuel Oil Corp. His sons Victor Allegretti and Alfred Alfredo Allegretti (1935-2001) later took over the family business, which became Bayside Fuel Oil Depot Corporation and opened this oil terminal on the west bank of the Gowanus Canal between Sackett and Union Streets in 1865. Allegretti hated the delays caused by tides and shipping, but stayed at the location because of its proximity to customers. In 1984, the company acquired a second depot at Shore Parkway and moved its headquarters there. In 1996 and 1997 they acquired the Smith Street (further south on the canal), Grand Street and North 12th Street terminals. In January of 2008, the NY Post reported that the company was exploring options for joining the gentrification of the area by cleaning up the Sackett St. site and building glass residential towers for the wealthy and powerful.

The floating boom across the canal just north of the Fuel Oil Depot is there to catch floating garbage that flows into the canal from storm overflow drains.

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1960's era Gulf Oil sign - Bayside Fuel Oil Depot

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Looking north up the Gowanus Canal from the Union St. Bridge

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Bayside Fuel Oil Depot

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Bayside Accurate Meter Corp. - Bond at Sackett Sts

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Nevins St north of Sackett

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Artists in Residence - 280 Nevins

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Alley off Nevins St

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Proteus Gowanus - gallery and reading room - 543 Union St

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National Packing Box Factory (artist lofts?) - Union @ Nevins

Union Street

The Union Street Bridge (NYC BIN #2240270) is a double-leaf Scherzer rolling lift bascule bridge that opened in 1904. The bridge carries two 17-foot-wide eastbound landes and two six-foot-wide sidewalks over the Gowanus Canal. It replaced a narrow 17-foot-wide pipe truss swing bridge and was built under the same contract with the replacement Third and Ninth Street Bridges.

11/19/2008 02:22 PM
Looking west toward the Union St. Bridge

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Union St Bridge deck viewed from the southeast

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Union St Bridge viewed from the south

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Maritime themed flagpole - Union at Nevins St

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Green building - Bond at Union Sts

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Green building

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Residential building - Bond at Union Sts

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Bond St north of Union

President Street

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Crusader Candle - Nevins at President St

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Old row houses off Carroll St at Nevins

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Gallagher and Company - 426 President at Bond

The Satori Condos at 340 Bond (btw President and Carroll Sts) are a pleasant example of about the best you can expect from gentrification. Tastefully in context with the other low-rise historic buildings in the neighborhood, it is more than can be expected from the steroidal luxury glass towers that will probably rise along the canal at some point.

11/19/2008 02:40 PM
Satori Condos

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Satori Condos

Carroll Street Bridge

The Carroll Street Bridge (NYC BIN #2240260) opened in 1889 and is a very rare example of a retractile drawbridge in which the main span is slid back on rails diagonally to clear passage through the canal. It is also notable as a rare surviving example of a kingpost truss - in this case constructed with plate girders. The bridge was designed by engineers at the Brooklyn Department of Public Works and built by the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company (Trenton Iron Works), a subsidiary of the firm of Cooper, Hewitt and Co. The bridge is trapezoidal in shape with a 17-foot roadway and 4-foot sidewalks. The span is 63 feet with a total bridge length of 107 feet. The channel it clears is 38 feet wide.

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Carroll St Bridge deck - viewed from the northeast

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Carroll St Bridge - viewed from the southeast

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Carroll St Bridge east approach cobblestones

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Carroll St Bridge deck - viewed from the southwest

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NY Landmarks Preservation historic sign

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Deck viewed from the west

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Retraction cable and pulleys

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Retraction rails

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Kingpost truss

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Replica walking speed warning sign

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Southern kingpost

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Northern kingpost

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Gowanus canal looking south from the Carroll St Bridge

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Northern wooden gate on east side

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Southern wooden gate on east side

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East approach to Carroll St Bridge viewed from the south at 1st St

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Storm sewer overflow drain to the southeast of the bridge

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Boats docked on the west bank between Carroll and Union Sts

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West approach and attendant house for the Carroll St Bridge

First / Second Streets

Toll Brothers proposed a 450-unit luxury housing development that would sit on the two blocks bounded by Carroll Street on the north, Second Street on the south, Bond Street on the west and the canal on the east. More info on the controversies surrounding this development and the associated rezoning efforts are available from:

11/19/2008 02:41 PM
Looking north on Bond St from 1st St

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1st St dead end into the west bank of the Gowanus Canal

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1st St west of the Gowanus Canal

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1st St west of the Gowanus Canal

The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club have a canoe dock on the west bank of the canal at Second St.

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2nd St Canoe launch

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The bend in the canal between 1st and Caroll Sts

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Water at the canoe launch

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Planter at the canoe launch

The east bank of the canal between 2nd/3rd Sts is home to a majestic abandoned power plant, complete with some colorful commentary on development plans for the neighborhood. Immediately to the east of it is a former subway power substation at 340 3rd Ave which was the printing plant for the Jewish Press.

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Power plant - 2nd Ave east of the canal

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Power plant

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Power plant

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Power plant

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Power plant

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340 3rd Ave

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340 3rd Ave with old power plant to the west

Third / Fourth Streets

The Third Street Bridge (NYC BIN #2240250) is a double-leaf Scherzer rolling lift bascule drawbridge that carries two 16-foot-wide traffic lanes of Third Street and two 6-foot-wide sidewalks over the Gowanus Canal. It opened in 1905 (built on the same contract as the Union and Ninth St bridges) and was extensively rehabilitated in 1986.

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The Third St Bridge viewed from the northwest

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Third St Bridge viewed from the west

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Third St Bridge

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South side of Third St Bridge

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Southwest mechanism of Third St Bridge

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Third St Bridge viewed from the west

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Walkup on Bond at Third St

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Foro Marble - 140 3rd St

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Foro Marble 140 3rd St

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Looking north at the Gowanus Canal from the Third St Bridge

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Looking south at the Gowanus Canal from the Third St Bridge

12/18/2008 02:33 PM
Truck alley off 3rd St east of 3rd Ave

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Warehouse on 4th St

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Where toilet paper comes from

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Brooklyn Fencing Center - 62 4th St

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Warehouse on 4th St

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Kabir's Bakery - 19 4th St

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Smith at 5th St

This Italianate building on the southwest corner of 3rd Ave and 3rd St was the headquarters of Edwin Litchfield's Brooklyn Improvement Company, which created the four basins off the canal between 4th and 8th street. The surrounding property to the south and west was cleared in 2007 for a Whole Foods store and possible residential development.

12/18/2008 02:33 PM
View from the northeast

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Bricked-in doorway on the north side

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View from the southeast

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View from the east

Just south of Third St, the canal curves to the west with the Fourth Street Basin extending to the east.

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Fourth Street Basin

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Fourth Street Basin

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Warehouse - Bond at 4th St

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The Gowanus Canal curving to the west around 4th St

12/18/2008 02:42 PM
Cleared lot north of 4th St basin - Whole Foods site

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Cleared lot north of 4th St basin

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Cleared lot north of 4th St basin

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4th St basin

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Dykes Lumber south of 4th St basin

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4th St basin

A short channel used to pass from the 4th St basin under a bridge on 3rd Ave to a basin east of 3rd Ave that was called the 5th St Basin. The basin was filled in sometime between 1953 and 1965. However, the bridge (NYC BIN 2240310), originally built in 1889 and extensively rebuilt 2007-2008, was left in place.

12/18/2008 02:43 PM
3rd Ave bridge - western walkway

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Warehouse on 3rd Ave north of old 5th St Basin (American Can Company?)

12/18/2008 02:45 PM
Loose fill in 5th St Basin on the east side of the 3rd Ave bridge