Canal Street gained its name from a literal canal that was dug in the early 1800s to drain the contaminated and disease-ridden Collect Pond into the Hudson River. The pond was filled in in 1811, and Canal Street was completed in 1820 along the angled path the canal had followed. The elimination of Collect Pond actually made the surrounding land even marshier, as the area had many natural springs that now had nowhere to drain. The historic townhouses and newer tenements that had been built along Canal Street fell into disrepair, and the eastern stretch of Canal Street came within the ambit of the notorious Five Points slum that emerged as property values and living conditions plummeted.
Today, Canal Street is a ramshackle but bustling commercial district, crowded with low-rent open storefronts and street vendors. Tourists as well as locals pack the Canal Street sidewalks every day to frequent the open-air food stalls and bare-bones stores selling items such as perfume, purses, hardware, and industrial plastics at very low prices. Most of these goods are grey market imports and many notoriously counterfeit, with fake trademarkedbrand names on electronics, clothing and personal accessories (including the fake Rolex watches that have become a Manhattan cliché). PiratedCDs and DVDs are also very common, offered for sale on the Canal Street sidewalks in makeshift stands and suitcases or simply laid out on bedsheets, often before they are even officially released in stores or the theater. Widespread sale of these counterfeit goods persists along Canal Street despite frequent police raids.
The Manhattan Bridge serves as the main connection between the BMT subway lines of Brooklyn and the 6th Avenue and Broadway subway lines in Manhattan.
BMT Broadway Subway at CanalStreet; the south side tracks to the BMT Nassau Street subway north of Chambers Street.
The south side tracks were used mostly during rush hour for services provided via the Nassau Street loop (which connected the BMT 4th Avenue and BMT Brighton Line to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge on the north end and the Montague Street tunnel on the south end).
If you stand at the crest of CanalStreet, right around Mulberry, and gaze down the crowded channel of concrete, you might be able to imagine the conditions that gave the arterial its name.
LowerManhattan would draw international attention in the late 18th century for legends that the first steam engine was tested on the pond, and that Prince William (later William IV of England) was once saved from drowning there.
A walk down CanalStreet today shows that the city is doing its best to keep the bustling street orderly: All six of its lanes have been resurfaced recently, lane markers have been repainted, and traffic signals were retimed.
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