History
Canal Street takes its name from a canal that was dug in the early 19th century to drain a contaminated and disease-ridden Collect Pond into the Hudson River. The pond was filled in 1811, and Canal Street was completed in 1820 following the angled path the canal had. The elimination of Collect Pond 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 quickly fell into disrepair, and the eastern stretch of Canal Street came within the ambit of the notorious Five Points slum as property values and living conditions plummeted.
Early in the 20th century, the jewelry trade centered on the corner of Canal and Bowery, but moved mid century to the modern Diamond District on 47th Street. In the 1920s, the Citizens Savings Bank built a magnificent domed headquarters at the Bowery, facing the Manhattan Bridge plaza which remains a local landmark. The portion of Canal Street around Sixth Avenue was New York's principal market for electronics parts for some quarter century after the closing of Radio Row.
Read more about this topic: Canal Street (Manhattan)
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