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Alligators in the sewers of New York: what is the basis of the most popular urban myth in the USA

'01.05.2020'

Vita Popova

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The tales of New York alligators have become so commonplace that they spawned hoaxes and art projects. But is this fiction really? The author of the channel “Aqua-Cosmos” tried to find the answer to this question on the website Yandex Zen.

There are many rumors about the alligators that live in the sewers of New York. Over the decades, all of them have lent an air of mystery to the age-old urban myth. "These alligators are the most ingrained American urban myth that has penetrated popular culture and has become a recurring theme in books, television shows and films," the author notes.

They say that alligators, who allegedly flood the New York sewer system, feed on rats and rubbish, terrorize sewage workers armed with self-defense pistols, and more.

The alligator myth has become so commonplace that it has spawned hoaxes and art projects. “It even became the official quasi-holiday of New York:“ Alligator Day in the Sewers is celebrated in February, ”we read in the publication.

On the subject: 'In New York, wolves have bitten a tourist': a provocateur sculptor comes up with legends that many believe

However, some of what is known about alligators in New York is true. For example, the fact that every year the city authorities save several alligators - as a rule, former pets, thrown out due to the fact that they have grown up and are no longer cute and "fluffy".

Here's how the myths about alligators in New York are gradually overgrown with new details:

1907: New Jersey Alligator Sewer

The New York Times reported that alligators in New York have been observed for more than a century. The article describes a worker in Kearney, a suburb of New Jersey, who was allegedly bitten by a small alligator while he was cleaning a sewer.

Gradually, news that alligators were seen around New York began to spread.

1932: Alligator Hunt

In 1932, several reptiles disappeared from the Belleville Zoo, in a city along the Passaic River in New Jersey. Two boys later brought a three-foot dead alligator and claimed that the Bronx River was teeming with live reptiles. The police organized a hunt for alligators. The officers, armed with fishing nets and pieces of calf liver, combed the "jungle of the Bronx River to catch alligators for the Bronx Zoo," the Times said. The hunt was stopped when the police realized that in fact the boys found an escaped domestic crocodile.

1934: an alligator souvenir

By the 1930s, these reptiles were sold as pets. Announcements about this could be found in a magazine like Popular Mechanics. Delivery of "goods" was carried out by mail.

In addition, vacationers in Florida brought reptiles as souvenirs. But when the alligators grew up, they were not so cute anymore, so they often ended up in the sewers - they were thrown into the toilet or into the street sewers. A Manhattan historian Michael Missione described the period: “It was a time when all these alligators were brought to New York and either escaped on their own or were released by heartless owners.”

1935: the murdered alligator

On February 9, 1935, a landmark event for New York took place regarding alligators. On this day, several teenagers from East Harlem noticed a reptile in storm sewers. They lassoed her and pulled her out with a clothesline. When an alligator about 2,4 meters long and weighing about 57 kg pounced on them, they killed him with shovels. “An alligator was found in the sewers of the Upper City,” read the headline in The Times. The article said that he escaped from a steamboat going to the East River, and swam into a sewer.

1937: alligator on the subway platform

A story similar to the previous one happened two years later, in 1937. The captain of the barge pulled a one and a half meter alligator out of the East River. He lassoed the animal behind its front legs, according to the New York Herald Tribune. “The tropical guest was clearly exhausted and did not seem to have a desire to fight,” the publication wrote.

A week later, a meter-long alligator got out of the garbage can, where, apparently, they threw it. He shocked passengers when he crawled along the Brooklyn subway platform.

The cops managed to cope with the reptile: one pounced on it, and the second tied it with a rope.

1950s: attempt to debunk alligator myths

Teddy May was working in the New York sewer system. When his subordinates told him that they had seen a large albino alligator and entire colonies of these reptiles, he did not believe. But in the end, he decided to go down to the ground to make sure that they were not there. However, something went wrong, and May saw the alligators with his own eyes.

He then ordered his men to take rifles and track down reptiles. This act was noted in the 1954 column by Meyer Berger, who received the Pulitzer Prize for the Times reporter, and in May’s obituary in The Times in 1960, in which he was credited with “directing the squad to clean the sewers from a lot of living alligators that were thrown into the sewers, like tiny pets, survived and grew large. ”

1957: alligators on television

In the late 1950s, the legend of New York alligators firmly entered popular culture. So, in one of the episodes of the 1957 television series Leave It to Beaver, the heroes Beaver and Wally bought an alligator by announcement.

1963 year: alligators in books

Alligators got not only on television screens, but also on the pages of books. In 1963, Thomas Pincher’s novel V was released. In it, the author wrote about small alligators, which can be bought in a store for 50 cents, as well as about a hunter for albino alligators who “live and breed” in the sewer system.

In 2002, another book was released that talked about reptiles. This is a children's book called Alberto's Dancing Alligator. She talks about Alberto traveling through a toilet throughout an underground water system before he popped up in other toilets and caused panic throughout the city.

If you are interested in learning more about New York city legends, be sure to read this post.

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