Long Island is home to a staggering 5,000 miles of hand-carved canals, a massive engineering feat born out of necessity. From the early Dutch and English settlers who carved ditches to harvest salt hay for livestock, to the New Deal era workers who dug millions of feet of trenches to wage war on mosquitoes, these earthworks reshaped the American coastline forever.

In this documentary, we explore how this ambitious project backfired. You will learn how these drainage systems triggered soil subsidence, poisoned the local food chain with legacy chemicals, and created a "highway" for ocean surges that now threaten suburban neighborhoods. Discover the history of how human intervention turned a natural barrier into a modern environmental crisis.

#longisland #history #environment

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IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

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Scriptwriter - Ryan Socash
Editor - Karolina Szwata
Host - Ryan Socash

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