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PHO ENIX S pecial G o w a n u s C anal Sectionto be towed and dumped into the sea. The pollution theme continues in the Brooklyn Eagle during July 1893. Blaming the lack of current for keeping the canal%u2019s status as a %u201c receptacle for filth of nearly half the city, an open cesspool poisoning the air for miles around,\cats and dogs seen in the vicinity of the Union St. Bridge and considers the area a breeding ground for cholera. The writer, back in 1893, recommends that the tide waters be turned via conduits 20 feet in diameter from the head of the canal.On March 12,1897, the Eagle reported that Maj. H. M. Adams, the army engineer in charge of the river and harbor improvement for New York and Brooklyn, submitted a report estimating that dredging the canai to a depth of 30 feet would cost $58,000. The report further advises that except for five piers, the depth along the docks does not exceed 12 feet at low water. The channel had been made 21 feet long and 100 feet wide in 1891 and was further widened out to the harbor lines with the same depth in 1894. A 12-foot diameter tunnel, used to flush water between Buttermilk Channel and the canal, was installed in 1905. It is no longer operative.The story continues in this manner until the end of World War II. Mid pleas for cleaning, dredging, corrective measures taken here and there (including dredging in 1949), the Gowanus continued as a major factor in the commerce of the city. However, in recent years, the bridges across the canal open less and less, and days go by with only a boat or two passing through. However, the stagnant waters still offend, and according to studies in progress, may indeed be the breeding ground of Salmonella, typhoid and bacillary dysentery organisms.Up To NowBuddy Scotto of Carroll Gardensbrings the tale up-to-date. An active member of the Carroll Gardens Association, Scotto recognized around 1964 that relief of the hazard of the \consideration. During contact at that time with various government agencies, he discovered that the agencies knewnext to nothing about the situation. Through continued searching he found \a Red Hook Sewer Treatment Plant, slated for Hamilton Ave. However, this was not followed through.As a matter of fact, Scotto notes, most of the agency personnel didn't even know where the canal was. When the interested people from the Carroll Gardens Association realized that their elected officials were amused by their efforts to attempt a clean up of the Gowanus, they decided that it was necessary to make the effort a political issue.During the emergence of the AntiPoverty program in 1967, and the beginning activism in South Brooklyn, the canal situation was connected with the generally bad living conditions of the area%u2019s poor.At that time according to Scotto, Father Mitchell of St. Agnes%u2019 parish (one of the three Catholic parishes bordering on the canal) began to discuss the condition of the Gowanus and stirred up community interest. Father Anthony Failla, then of St. Mary's Star of the Sea on Court St., became involved as well. Through Father Failla, contact was made with Bishop Francis J. Mugavero, Brooklyn's highest ranking member of the Catholic Archdiocese.Enter LindsayThrough the continued interest of the Bishop, the Lindsay adm inistration became involved. During 1969, the newly reorganized Carroll Gardens Association met with Father Failla, Bishop Mugavero, a few young people from the parish, and Richard Kaplan ' well-known urban designer. The group gathered together for three sessions.Scotto advises that Kaplan, fascinated with the potential for development of the canal, spent $20,000 of his own money to look into the situation and come up with an overall plan. During the same year, Scotto says, Sam Azadian, now head of the South Brooklyn Mayor%u2019s Task Force, arranged for Mayor Lindsay%u2019s appearance at a luncheon at St. Mary%u2019s Star of the Sea with Rev. Msgr. Chas. Diviney of St. Charles, who represented theCANAL STUDY : Prof. Jeanne Holker, a microbiologist of New York City Community College, reaches for sampling bottle that Prof. William R. Walkwitz lifts with fishing mje from foul-smelling Gowanus CanalGOWANUS COCKTAIL: Prof. Jeanne Holker pours fluid from sampling bottle into sterilized container that will be brought tos%u00ab /> l I s n sk sn I a - #%**1**%u00ab^ 4 .1 /! .* , a |%u00ab I A / s l / m r f A n IW 1 1 C 5 0 i u u u i u i u i / i v i o o i c i i i n i u u t i a i j r d t o , m v f M u g w i 1, <%u2022La aI V I C l I V /BY CORRINE COLEMANThe village of Gowanus, called the first \1636 when 930 acres of land was bought from the Indians.Gowanus, or Gouanes, is an Indian name and is said to be the place where an Indian called Gowane planted his corn. Georgia Fraser quotes a 1637 settler in The Stone House at Gowanus published in 1909: \sea, a large piece of low flat land which is overflown at every tide like the marsh with us, mirky and muddy at the bottom, which produces a species of hard salt grass or reed grass. There is here a grist mill driven by the water which they dam up in the creek.\When Nicholas Van Vechte built that stone house that became famous as the Vechte Cortelyou house, on the banks of the Gouanes creek (5 Ave. & 9 St.), he dug a narrow channel through which he could take his boatload of farm produce to New Amsterdam. Thus he laid the foundations for the present canal. And for many years, inhabitants of the area continued to travel to Manhattan via their own boats.At the north end of the Gowanus in the area where Douglas, and Butler Sts. are now located, the Freekes Mill Road Crossed the Gowanus Creek, American soldiers retreated over this road into fortified lines, after the capture of Gen. Sullivan at Battle Pass in Prospect Park, during the Revolutionary War.Until 1846, the old creek of the %u201c first white settlement in Brooklyn\\traversed the still placid meadows. 1846 became transition time however. The meadows were beginning to be converted into streets. The area was bustling. Agitation for the canal began.Construction BegunConstruction started during the 1860%u2019s. The Litchfield family's Brooklyn Improvement Co. (which exists to this day) was involved in the building.By 1891, traffic on the canal became extensive. It was often necessary to open a side swinging bridge 44 times a day to allow passage of canal boats and other craft. During the cold of winter, an average of 24 or 25 boats per day necessitated bridge opening. At that time a demand was made for a tunnel under \obstructive body of w ater%u201d beginning around Hamilton Ave. Horse cars bringing people to and from the Hamilton Ave. ferry suffered long delays awaiting the passage of boats under the bridge.DIRTY THENAt the same time, the canal, a most important factor in the trade and industries of the city, with its banks filled with stone yards, brick yards, coal depots, and lumber yards, was already considered a health hazard. An article in the Sept. 13, 1891, Brooklyn Eagle calls the Gowanus \very much better than it is.\that \filthy condition if there was no sewage run into it,%u201d the writer asks for the installation of tanks to catch the refuse which would then be pumped into scows