The Bay River (Tagalog: Ilog ng Bay), also known as the Sapang River or the San Nicolas River, is a river system in Bay, Laguna. It is one of 21 major tributaries of Laguna de Bay and is the more southern of two small rivers that hem the town proper of Bay.
The other is the Calo River (Tagalog: Ilog Calo), another Laguna de Bay tributary, to the north. In geographical terms, these two rivers created the main area of the town of Bay by leaving many centuries' worth of alluvial deposits in the lower section of the plain close to Laguna de Bay.
That plain, in time, was selected by the earliest settlers of Bay as the site of their community, because the access to the lake meant easy transportation and ready access to a source of water.
The downside to this choice of location was regular flooding. Residents still recall that when the two rivers overflowed their banks, the poblacion and six other barangays would be flooded. However, this rarely happens today because an irrigation system consisting of canals and ditches which bring water from these rivers into the ricefields have reduced the force of the waters.
The Bay River forms Bay's boundary with Calauan, Laguna. A third river on the opposite side of the town, the Maitem River (Tagalog: Ilog Maitem), forms Bay's boundary with Los Baños, Laguna.
Famous quotes containing the words bay and/or river:
“Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.
There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed”
—Charles Simic (b. 1938)