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Its origins are murky, but early variations included Cujanes, Cowanoes, Gauwanes, Gouanes, and Gouwanes, and, as the waterway evolved from a wild marshland to a polluted industrial canal, it has been called The Lavender Lake, Fringeville, a toxic wasteland, a Stygian mess, a swampy morass, and an open sewer. "The more I looked, the more there was."ĭuring his years of research, Joseph Alexiou uncovered many things, including the numerous names the Gowanus has had over the centuries. "I became obsessed with the word Gowanus and then turned it into a story," said Alexiou, describing his research and writing process. Along the way, it visits with poisoned whales, forgotten islands, vanished shanty towns, mass graves from the Revolutionary War, and a roster of strange local characters-the artists, poets, activists, and gangsters who, even today, add to the canal's quirky charm. Like the Gowanus itself, this densely packed historical narrative meanders through many unexpected twists and turns, sometimes reaching dead ends and sometimes revealing unexpected perspectives, as it explores this peculiar landscape of industrial relics and horrendous pollution. Last Friday, he launched the results of his years-long infatuation, a 398-page book titled Gowanus: Brooklyn's Curious Canal. The allure of the Gowanus Canal is one of the great mysteries of South Brooklyn, and Joseph Alexiou has been pulled deeply into the powerful eddies of this diminutive 1.8-mile waterway. I would go to an emergency room, and I would make sure to get antibiotics." "But I wouldn't do it myself, having learned the history of it. "You could probably go swimming once and be fine," replied Alexiou. "Can you go swimming in it?" asked one, a local high school student who had taken up a position on the opposite footing. It was a vista with its own unique appeal, enjoyed that day by only a few other Brooklyn visitors. The view was hemmed in by graffiti covered warehouses and a decrepit fuel depot, but the churning, noxious headwaters of the Gowanus Canal could be seen nearby. Clouds of fecal matter and rainbow-patterned oil slicks floated slowly by, drawing the eye upstream to their source. At the bottom was a small platform, coated in layers of raw sewage, industrial pollutants and rusted blue-green paint. On a recent balmy afternoon, Joseph Alexiou clambered down a ladder on the side of the Union Street Bridge. This week, examining a new book about the Gowanus Canal. Welcome back to Camera Obscura, Curbed's series of photo essays by Nathan Kensinger.
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