Possible to redirect the Hudson River to the East River? (New York: apartments, city hall)

[ker38]

man oh man what a huge improvement it would be to have paved land from Jersey to Manhattan.

all those bottlenecks - and there are many - that make for crappy commutes would be gone. you could bike from JC to Manhattan. you could walk even. take a cab.

think of all the apartments and reduced overall rent.

what is the Hudson used for anyway really? the one barge i see an hour? redirect that barge to the East River.

i guess the bronx will take the brunt of this as it is likely the narrowest point to redirect the hudson.

[john_starks]

i'm all for it

where is it planned for? sounds like the ft lee, edgewater area? further north??

[StaggerLee22]

Ain't never gonna happen.
The Striped Bass fishery would suffer.

[bluedog2]

There was a plan in the 1920's to divert and drain The East River to connect the city.It called for an underground system of local and express auto,truck and subway lines with a huge park over it all and a huge new civic center/NYC Hall in the middle of the park.

Popular Science - Google Books

I think it would be impossible for The Hudson though because there is no place to divert the river.It's way too big. Chris Christie would be opposed as well.

We don't want to do projects like this anymore because we need to concentrate all our energy and financial resources on invading other countries and fighting wars to promote the capitalist agenda.

But maybe if Bloomberg becomes mayor for life he can revive the East River plan and we can name the new city hall after him.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by bluedog2

There was a plan in the 1920's to divert and drain The East River to connect the city.

Well...being that the East River isn't actually a river at all, but a strait, I should think it would be possible to drain it. This is, after all, a Dutch born city, and the Dutch have been experts at that sort of thing for a few hundred years now.

As to diverting the Hudson--that just shows that someone out there hasn't said no to drugs. You can dream about diverting rivers, but you can't actually make it happen. The Army Corps of Engineers has been trying to redirect the Mississippi River for nearly 50 years now. All they're really accomplishing is spending outlandish amounts of money. The Mississippi flows where it wants to, not where the Army says it should.

[Walter Greenspan]

The lower Hudson is not a river; it is actually a tidal estuary, with tidal influence extending as far north as the Federal Dam at Troy.

[Bronxguyanese]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

Well...being that the East River isn't actually a river at all, but a strait, I should think it would be possible to drain it. This is, after all, a Dutch born city, and the Dutch have been experts at that sort of thing for a few hundred years now.

As to diverting the Hudson--that just shows that someone out there hasn't said no to drugs. You can dream about diverting rivers, but you can't actually make it happen. The Army Corps of Engineers has been trying to redirect the Mississippi River for nearly 50 years now. All they're really accomplishing is spending outlandish amounts of money. The Mississippi flows where it wants to, not where the Army says it should.

The Dutch have been fighting water leveling problems since the day the Dutch got its independence from Spain at the later half of the 16th century.

[Kefir King]

It rains and snows in New York State...the Hudson allows that water to drain away, has for many millions of years.
Probably easier and wiser to remove PEOPLE instread. Instead of removing rivers perhaps a more sensible and FAR easier plan would be a national policy to HALVE the population of the U.S. by 2112?

Macadam and concrete from sea to shining sea doesn't seem like a particularly good idea especially with that pesky bit of water that would keep intruding...the ATLANTIC OCEAN.


P.S. Diverting the Hudson down the East River would flood half of Brooklyn, Queens, and a good bit of Manhattan.

Man is too stupid to make even the tiniest changes in nature without catastrophe. Should he try to divert rivers the resulting comedy would put the Keystone Kops to shame.

[nightcrawler]

Originally Posted by ker38

man oh man what a huge improvement it would be to have paved land from Jersey to Manhattan.

all those bottlenecks - and there are many - that make for crappy commutes would be gone. you could bike from JC to Manhattan. you could walk even. take a cab.

think of all the apartments and reduced overall rent.

what is the Hudson used for anyway really? the one barge i see an hour? redirect that barge to the East River.

i guess the bronx will take the brunt of this as it is likely the narrowest point to redirect the hudson.

you need to do a little research on the Hudson, then you will get it.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by Walter Greenspan

The lower Hudson is not a river; it is actually a tidal estuary, with tidal influence extending as far north as the Federal Dam at Troy.

That's just splitting hairs, isn't it? The Hudson is a river--all right, a river that ends in a tidal estuary--and the East River is a strait. You aren't seriously suggesting that the Hudson could be diverted, are you? (And while I'm thinking about it, where do all these people think it would be diverted to? Has someone got a plan to connect it with the Delaware through Sullivan County...or is it supposed to empty into Long Island Sound, cutting Westchester County in half?)