Satellite Picture of the East River

The East River is New York's Premier Waterway. The East River Should Be Called A Strait Because It Has No Source. A Dutch Explorer By The Name Of Adriaen Block Found The East River In 1613. He Named The Middle Point Of The River Helegat Meaning "Bright Passage". The Name That Stuck With It Was Hell's Gate Because Of The Whirlpools And Dangerous Rocks. Those Whirlpools And Dangerous Rocks Became Famous For Ruining Sailors Boats.
C.J., E.H., T.P.

Oysters on the East

I like the East river, it's fun. It has alot of water and fish. The water in the East river is not totally clean but people are trying their best to clean it up. It's hard because it has been neglected for so long and people just started to clean it up. East river was and still is a very active harbor. East River is part of the New York estuary. It is Brackish water and has many life in it. It has flonder, phyto-planktin and zoo-panktin. It has alot of pollution but it is also bio-diverse.
We at the Harbor School have gone to the New York Harbor (Hudson River, East River, etc) many times. At the East River we do many things. We do water quality, talk about specific life in that part of the river and observe the river from where we are. One trip on the river was to the South Street Seaport Museum. We learned about oyster life in the river. East river use to have a huge oyster reef. An oyster is a muscle inside a shell. An oyster reef is a structure made of a hard substance that allows oysters and other mollusks to attach.
We learned alot about oyster restoration is the process by which artificial reefs are made to allow for oysters to repopulate. Oysters are very important to the New York Harbor because they were a huge delicacy, a big profit and filtered the water. We had the opprotunity to examine oysters and even had the opprotunity to feast on them. I didn't because the insides were way too gooey and slimy. It made me sick and I couldn't bare the sight. After that we labled the insides of the oysters on a piece of paper and then dicected it. It was fun but the smell got to me. I had a fun time some moments were good and some were bad but I learned alot. I think that the East River is super important and vital to New York city.
C.N.

My East River Reflections

On that day we went to the South Street Seaport Museum. As usual we took the train and had to read our books, which no one wanted to do, we would have preferred talking. When we got out of the subway and started walking we saw a big building and Rob said "Here we are" and we looked at him because he was talking about the other door next to the building that was small in comparison. At first we couldn't get in and had to go through the back, and even then we still could not get in, I think about 15 minutes later we finally got in.
When we got inside, there was 4 long tables about 4 chairs on each side, each wall was covered in cardboard and on each cardboard was a Famous African American person's picture with captions underneath. First Ann wrote the vocabulary words on the "board" that she had brought with her. Then after we took notes, I think it was time to eat. As usual I didn't bring anything to eat so I was bored and hungry, and knew not to give anyone a piece of their food.
After that we had to take notes while Rob read on the overhead. He was speaking about oysters and how back then people ate them all the time and even them in their soup. Back then it felt like people lived for oysters. Someone brought in oysters for us to touch, most of the boys touched it, until we all had to. we were each given an oyster and had to pull them open. After that we had to draw what we saw in the oyster, and label the body parts. Some of them were still alive, some of them had no heart, and the rest had a nasty liquid coming out of them.
The rest of the day was a blurr to me. I can't remembered what happened. I think that we went to do a water quality test and when we came back the door was locked, some of us had our stuff and some of us didn't. Everyone started going crazy, because the people who had their stuff wanted to leave and the people who didn't have their stuff wanted their stuff so they could leave.
I think that we had to wait 10 minutes until someone came and opened the door. We got all our stuff and that was the end of the day.

Judith D

Reflections of East River

While I was on the East River trip I went to pier17 at South Street Seaport Museum. I Had fun that day because we went to the pier and did Water Quality testing on the water. Also, on East River we went to South Street Seaport Museum for cycle 8 to learn about Oysters. we did alot of work on oyster day.but it was nice when I found out what oyster were and how it was important to the people.I learn that people use them for machine and food to survie.
Also ,going to Pier17 and S.S.S.M it was a wonderful day. because it was nice when I saw birds,seagulls,and all those people sitting down at Pier17.also I was surprised for the first that I saw Oysters.also we tested some of the inside of a Oysters.but I did not like the inside of the oyster.I thought it was disgusting but some people ate it. this was the second best trip of the year.
But one thing I did not like about the trip was that some people were watching us.like very surprised.they looked at us with their face very impressed about us learning about the East River.also we learned about the history of the oysters. and other animals living in the East River.
Finally, at the end of the day everyone started going crazy because some people left their bookbag inside the building because the door was closed.Also
I have to say that This trip at the South Street Seaport Musuem.was very fun and I like.hope I visit it again.Thank you for listening to me.

C.Rodriguez

Background

The East River is located on the East side of Manhattan and the west side of Brooklyn and Queens. The East river is not really a river because it has no source and flows into the Long Island Sound at the Throngs Neck bridge and into the New York Harbor at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. This is called a strait. The East River is also one of the many estuaries in the New York Harbor with brackish water. An estuary is an area that allows for mixing of fresh and salt water together. Brackish water is a mixture of fresh and salt water.
One historical place on the East River is the South Street Seaport, because it has includes places like Fulton Street and Fulton Fish Market. Fulton Street was the only street in lower Manhattan that stretched from the East River to the Hudson River until the World Trade Center site was built, making it a major throughfare in the nineteenth century. Fulton Street was named after Robert Fulton, whose steam ferry boat was the first ferry to run from Fulton Street to Brooklyn in 1814. The Fulton Market at the South Street Seaport today is called the Fourth Market. The original Fulton Market opened in 1822. It was one of New York City's system of food distribution.
The East River is 16 miles long and 600-4,000 feet wide.
By Monique Campbell Section 1

Salinity of the East River

Salinity is the amount of salt inside of the water. This is very important because if there is too much salt it will kill fish that live in fresh water and if there is not enough salt it can kill salt water fish as well. From salinity you can determine if the water is brackish, fresh, or just salt water. From the salinity you can tell if the rivers are flooding with the tide due to the fact that more ocean water is entering the rivers which creates brackish water. Brackish water is a mixture of fresh and salt water together, which is creating an estuary!
Salinity is measured by using a hydrometer. A hydrometer is used by taking water from a ocean or a river then you put it on flat surface. Leave it for about a minute and then it will tell you the of salnity of the water. From all the rivers we tested "The East River" is the third highest salnity tested. These are the salinity of the rivers we explored East river 25ppt, Newtown creek 6ppt, Hudson river 19ppt, Pier 26 20ppt, New York Aquarium 28ppt, Bronx river 7ppt, Gowanus canal 21ppt,and Dead Horse Bay 33ppt.