East River: Difference between revisions

One result of the narrowing of the East River along the shoreline of Manhattan and, later, Brooklyn – which continued until the mid-19th century when the state put a stop to it – was an increase in the speed of its current. [[Buttermilk Channel]], the strait that divides [[Governors Island]] from [[Red Hook, Brooklyn|Red Hook]] in Brooklyn, and which is located directly south of the "mouth" of the East River, was in the early 17th century a fordable waterway across which cattle could be driven. Further investigation by Colonel Jonathan Williams determined that the channel was by 1776 three fathoms deep ({{convert|18|feet}}), five fathoms deep ({{convert|30|feet}}) in the same spot by 1798, and when surveyed by Williams in 1807 had deepened to 7 fathoms ({{convert|42|feet}}) at low tide. What had been almost a bridge between two landforms that were once connected had become a fully navigable channel, thanks to the constriction of the East River and the increased flow it caused. Soon, the current in the East River had become so strong that larger ships had to use auxiliary steam power in order to turn.<ref>Steinberg, pp.81–82, 89–90, 107</ref> The continued narrowing of the channel on both side may have been the reasoning behind the suggestion of one New York State Senator, who wanted to fill in the East River and annex Brooklyn, with the cost of doing so being covered by selling the newly made land.<ref>Burrows and Wallace, p.719</ref> Others proposed a dam at Roosevelt Island (then Blackwell's Island) to create a wet basin for shipping.<ref name=unbound127>Steinberg, p.127</ref>

 

 

===Filling in the river===