Canal Street (Manhattan)

By 1800, Collect Pond, one of New York City's few natural sources of fresh water, had become completely polluted with sewage and run-off from the tanneries, breweries, and other workshops and factories around it.

[1] Run-off from the pond, including one "sluggish stream" which traveled part of the route of the future Canal Street, fed nearby swamps and marshes which prevented the city from continuing its northward growth.

The portion of Canal Street around Sixth Avenue was New York's principal market for electronics parts for a quarter-century after the closing of Radio Row to make way for the building of the World Trade Center.

[8] Tourists as well as locals pack its sidewalks every day to frequent the open-air stalls and bare-bones stores selling items such as perfume, purses, hardware, and industrial plastics at low prices.

Bootleg CDs and DVDs were common, and were offered for sale on Canal Street—often before they were even officially released in stores or the theater—in makeshift stands and suitcases or simply laid out on bedsheets.

[10][11] In addition, legislation was proposed in 2013 to try to make purchasing counterfeit items a crime; this would let the city's economy earn back at least $1 billion annually in taxes.

Stores and vendors dot Canal Street, hawking merchandise
Broadway crossing the canal in 1811
The Citizens Savings Bank building at 58 Bowery on the corner of Canal Street in Chinatown, currently an HSBC bank branch and also a New York City Landmark
The former Loew's Canal Street Theatre at 31 Canal Street, a New York City Landmark