THE GUIDE

Canal Street

The origin of the name Canal St. is linked to the presence of a canal built in 1805 along this street. It was 12 meters wide and was used to drain water from a small lake, the Collect Pond, to the Hudson River. The canal was flanked by a row of trees and a road to each side, but in 1820 it was buried and paved and later became one of the busiest streets in the city. At the beginning of the 20th century it was the center of the jewelry trade and in the 1920s the Citizens Savings Bank established its headquarters there. Today it is a commercial street in the heart of Chinatown.

References

Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Keller, Nancy Flood. The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition. Yale University Press, 2010. p. 201
Henry Moscow. The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins. Fordham University Press, 1990. p. 33
Canal Street (Wikipedia)