via Curbed – Flowing under wooden bridges and alongside dirt roads, past empty bungalows and into marshy side streets, with deer and turkeys wandering freely along its reedy banks, New Creek does not feel like a modern urban waterway.
Settled by the Dutch in the 1600s, its three branches still retain their rural, small town roots, with isolated houses dotting a sparse landscape of forested glens and open marshlands. But after decades of landfill and development, the creek now requires a radical rehabilitation, and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has begun an ambitious project to bring this wild Staten Island waterway into the 21st century.
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