Gowanus Canal Esplanade

Gowanus Canal Esplanade is a developing waterfront pathway along the Gowanus Canal, one of the most polluted waterways in the United States and a federal Superfund site that is undergoing a massive cleanup while the surrounding neighborhood transforms.

The Gowanus Canal was built in the 1860s to serve the industries that lined its banks: coal yards, gas works, paint factories, tanneries, and cement plants. Over a century of industrial discharge left the canal so polluted that its waters ran purple and black.

The canal was designated a Superfund site by the EPA in 2010, triggering a cleanup that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to complete. The remediation involves dredging contaminated sediment from the canal bottom.

Despite its toxic legacy, the Gowanus neighborhood has become one of Brooklyn's most dynamic, with artists' studios, restaurants, music venues, and the new Whole Foods (built on stilts over the canal floodplain) creating a vibrant community around the polluted waterway.

Gowanus Canal Esplanade provides a walking experience unlike any other in New York City: a stroll along one of the most contaminated waterways in America, through a neighborhood whose creative energy has somehow flourished amid the pollution, cleanup, and transformation.