| Newtown Creek |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT NEWTOWN CREEK | |
| east river | |
| rivers of new york | |
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In New York City , Newtown Creek, approximately 3.5 miles in length, empties into the East River . It forms part of the boundary between Brooklyn and Queens . Its waterfront, and that of its tributaries English Kills, Dutch Kills, and Maspeth Creek, are heavily industrialized. It is one of the most polluted waterways in North America , and is the site of the Greenpoint Oil Spill , the United States' largest underground oil spill. , against a backgound of the New York skyline.]] Before the nineteenth century urbanization and industrialization of the surrounding neighborhoods, Newtown Creek was a longer, wider and shallower tidal waterway, wide enough that it contained islands. It drained a large part of Bushwick . During the second half of the nineteenth century it became a major commercial waterway, bounded along most of its length by retaining walls. The shipping channel is maintained by dredging. The Montauk Branch of the Long Island Railroad , mainly a freight line, runs along the right bank. A liquid natural gas port is under construction on the left bank, near Greenpoint Avenue. Newtown Creek is crossed by the Pulaski Bridge , the J. J. Byrne Memorial Bridge , and the Kosciuszko Bridge . Several smaller bridges take roads over its tributaries. All except the Kosciuszko (which replaced the Penny Bridge at the foot of Meeker Avenue) are drawbridges. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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