Slideshow: Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn, NY. 2010.

I drove to Dead Horse Bay to explore another part of Brooklyn. This place and the surrounding areas don’t seem anything at all like Brooklyn. Not a lot of people and lot of vegetation. Also, an enormous amount of pollution on the shores. Some parts of the beach seemed to primarily be made of glass. If those aren’t reason enough to be careful, the beach also had it’s share of needles washed ashore. I was also privy to a genuine sea monster sighting… the video for that will be posted shortly. Proceed with caution.

From Wikipedia:
Dead Horse Bay is a small water body off Barren Island between the Gerritsen Inlet and Rockaway Inlet in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

During the seventeenth century, Dutch settlers built tide mills to grind wheat into flour. A remaining millstone can still be found along the Millstone trail. From the nineteenth century to the twentieth century the area has been used in a variety of ways, including manufacturing fertilizer from the remains of dead animals, producing fish oil from the menhaden caught in the bay, and more recently a landfill for the disposal of New York City’s garbage. In 1926, much of the salt marsh surrounding Dead Horse Bay and the rest of Barren Island were pumped with sand from Jamaica Bay. This raised the land to 16 feet above the high tide mark and connected the islands to each other, and the mainland of Brooklyn, in order to create Floyd Bennett Field as New York City’s first municipal airport. The entire area, including the historic airfield, are now managed by the National Park Service as part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area.


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One response to “Slideshow: Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn, NY. 2010.”

  1. The above post was quoted and images used for an article in “Sheepshead Bites”, an independent news blog:
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    Photos: Dead Horse Bay Dying Of Pollution
    by Ned Berke on Aug 25th, 2010

    SLIDESHOW HERE

    Oh, you’ve never heard of Dead Horse Bay? The old mill area, turned manufacturing zone (of fertilizer, created from dead animals), turned landfill, turned nature preserve – sits alongside Floyd Bennett Field by the entrance to Gerritsen Inlet. It’s rich with history, and perhaps richer with filth and pollution.

    It’s the former that drew musician and photographer “chvad” to tour the area, but it’s the latter that most impressed him. He wrote, “This place and the surrounding areas don’t seem anything at all like Brooklyn. Not a lot of people and lot of vegetation. Also, an enormous amount of pollution on the shores. Some parts of the beach seemed to primarily be made of glass. If those aren’t reason enough to be careful, the beach also had it’s share of needles washed ashore.”

    His slideshow, above, captures a lot of that grit and filth, yet in a hauntingly beautiful way. Check out his site to find more photos and learn about his music.
    ———————————————————-
    The article is available here:
    http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2010/08/photos-dead-horse-bay-dying-of-pollution/

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