Nicholas Carey
07-31-2003, 12:21 PM
From today's NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/): July 31, 2003
Paddling Hartford's Scenic Sewer
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
HARTFORD — Even if you know something about Hartford's Park River — and chances are you do not; the federal government buried it nearly 60 years ago — actually finding it amid this city's highways and housing projects is a matter of pride and prejudice.
Pride, that is, in locating the concrete esophagus that swallows the damaged river on the city's west side, sending its waters underground; prejudice against launching oneself into the dark, hot breath of what is essentially a sewer channel for a three-mile journey under this city.
It was not always this way. The Park River's main branch, perhaps the most abused urban waterway in Connecticut, still connects Hartford's west side to the Connecticut River, just as it did when the Dutch first arrived in 1614. Only now the sinuous artery, used by Hartford's residents over centuries as a highway, power source and garbage dump, flows 30 to 50 feet below the surface. It runs under the State Capitol grounds, under a dreary connector road and under the headquarters of the Hartford Public Library.
Thus, for some, the Park River is perfect for canoeing.
"It's a unique sensory experience," said John Kulick, a Canton, Conn., resident and canoeist intent on leading subterranean tours of what he calls the Lost Park River. "The darkness and the dripping and the echoes — it's like a chance to go to a kind of alien world." ... [more] (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/nyregion/31RIVE.html)
[ 07-31-2003, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]
Paddling Hartford's Scenic Sewer
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
HARTFORD — Even if you know something about Hartford's Park River — and chances are you do not; the federal government buried it nearly 60 years ago — actually finding it amid this city's highways and housing projects is a matter of pride and prejudice.
Pride, that is, in locating the concrete esophagus that swallows the damaged river on the city's west side, sending its waters underground; prejudice against launching oneself into the dark, hot breath of what is essentially a sewer channel for a three-mile journey under this city.
It was not always this way. The Park River's main branch, perhaps the most abused urban waterway in Connecticut, still connects Hartford's west side to the Connecticut River, just as it did when the Dutch first arrived in 1614. Only now the sinuous artery, used by Hartford's residents over centuries as a highway, power source and garbage dump, flows 30 to 50 feet below the surface. It runs under the State Capitol grounds, under a dreary connector road and under the headquarters of the Hartford Public Library.
Thus, for some, the Park River is perfect for canoeing.
"It's a unique sensory experience," said John Kulick, a Canton, Conn., resident and canoeist intent on leading subterranean tours of what he calls the Lost Park River. "The darkness and the dripping and the echoes — it's like a chance to go to a kind of alien world." ... [more] (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/nyregion/31RIVE.html)
[ 07-31-2003, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]