Poetry, History, Mud, and Gold

I just wanted to say a few things about this island we currently know as Manhattan. In the past year, the Manhatta project published a book about how the island has changed since Henry Hudson came here four hundred years ago. One of the things I read that mosts stands out in my mind is the fact that Times Square used to be a red maple swamp, and actually today, it is one of the only place on the island where access to the deeper layers of earth allows geothermal air conditioning to be possible.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/podcast-making-tkts-hip-to-be-square

http://themannahattaproject.org/

Last fall, I was on a team of architecture students conducting research on the geology of Manhattan, as it related to the site for our project at the time. This is when I learned about Manhattan schist, the bedrock strong enough to support the weight of so many skyscrapers on such a small stretch of land. (It is said that the cityscape contour follows the presence of manhattan schist, faithfully). This is the rock you see jutting out of the landscape across Central Park. In 1924, it was also decided that the schist would make a suitable floor to stack one third of the world's monetary gold reserves on. So the Federal Reserve Bank of New York did just that, creating a vault 50 feet below sea level. I love the image of a room full of gold set deep within the interior of a hard, black, knotty bed of stone.















And lastly, in the past week, at the site of the former World Trade Center towers, the remains of an eighteenth century ship was found. In the 18th and 19th century, fill dirt and random debris was dumped along the shore of lower Manhattan in an effort to extend the terrain. Battery Park City alone is built on the displaced soil that was excavated in order to build the WTC towers. Today on the WTC site, there are several new towers and a memorial being built, but excavation now went deeper than it did in the 70's and that is how the ship was found. Again, the image of time's relics set deep in the black mud of one of the busiest cities in the world, is a very poetic image. You can't help but wonder what other gems lie silently underfoot of 8 million people.

http://www.wtc.com/media/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/18th-century-ship-found-at-trade-center-site/