What Lies Beneath?

New York's waterfront is one of the busiest harbors in the world and, until recently, there was limited knowledge of what is resting below the surface. Old fashioned depth sounding techniques like the lead and sinker have been replaced with state-of-the-art sonar; compliments of a research team from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The team has methodically swept the Lower Hudson and has, after stitching together their data, produced a color keyed map of the second, underwater world.

Here are some of the highlights: a 350- foot steamship, a freight train, 1600 bars of silver (unrecovered since 1903), a fleet of Good Humor ice cream trucks that are now reefs for aquatic life, and so many junked cars near the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges that divers use them as navigation points. The least surprising find, without a doubt, was the score of homicides and suicides. Unfortunately for the police, they end up in the river during winter and often stay underwater until April, when decomposition speeds up and bloats them with gases. Shortly after, they bob up and currents have been known to drive them to nooks near the Seaport and Manhattan Bridge. It's an interesting project and if you want to read about all the other weird shit that was found read THIS ARTICLE.