Gowanus Canal Viewing Boxes
In September 1998, Place in History
installed ten steel viewing boxes along the railings of the
Union Street Bridge spanning the Gowanus Canal, an industrial
waterway in Brooklyn.
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Each metal box contained a viewing slot
through which passersby could look onto an image illustrating
aspects of the canal's industrial heyday.
The images, printed on acrylic and mounted
within the boxes, included the original Union Street
Bridge, barge traffic along the canal, ornamental
gardens built near the Carroll Street Bridge, and the
Gowanus Pumping Station under construction, and a newspaper
report on the adventures of a local "canal guardian."
The installation of the boxes celebrated
the reopening of the Gowanus Canal pumping station. Finally
operational after more than thirty years on the drawing board,
the pumping station flushes the polluted waters of the canal
with clean water from the Buttermilk Channel in New York Bay.
Partners and Sponsors
Place in History collaborated with the
Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment
("BCUE") and the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation
("GCCDC") on the viewing box project. BCUE operates
a variety of educational and historical programs around Brooklyn,
including several that focus on the Gowanus Canal. In
addition to acting as a conduit organization for funding applications
related to this project, BCUE agreed to share its historical
research on the Gowanus Canal with Place in History and covered
materials costs for the prototype box. Place in History
is also working with BCUE on developing complementary educational
programs about the canal in anticipation of the next installation
of the boxes. GCCDC, a local development organization, provided
liability insurance for the project and has been an important
source of information about the Gowanus community.
Place in History received project endorsements
from Brooklyn Community Board 6, the Brooklyn Borough President,
City Councilmembers Angel Rodriguez and Stephen DiBrienza,
the New York City Department of Transportation, Care about
the Slope, Greenspace and a wide range of community representatives.
Funding was provided by the Independence Community Foundation
and the New York Council for the Humanities/National Endowment
for the Humanities.
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