Bushwick Inlet Park

Bushwick Inlet Park stands on ground that was once a tidal creek known as Norman Kill. Dutch settlers used the waterway to reach the interior, and in the nineteenth century, the creek was the industrial heart of the neighborhood. Factories lined its banks, including the Continental Iron Works, where workers built the U.S.S. Monitor. This vessel became famous as the Navy's first ironclad warship, which famously engaged in the first battle between iron-armored ships during the American Civil War. As the nineteenth century progressed, the original creek became a dumping ground for industrial waste and sewage. The resulting odor and pollution led the city to fill in the waterway entirely by 1913, turning a once-natural estuary into a solid stretch of manufacturing land. For decades, the site remained hidden behind fences and served as a depot for oil and shipping operations.