Urban Legend?
For many years, it has been common for the people of New York to vacation in Florida. To have a brief respite, especially during the winter months in the city. It was a fad at one time, for the travelers to purchase baby alligators, and then to bring them back to the city as souvenirs for their children. The alligators would become too big, and would end up, most often times, being flushed down the toilet. Urban legend has it that some of these animals survived and bred in the sewer systems of Manhattan. Growing into giant alligators just under the streets of the city. And they continue to survive to this day, under the clubs, under the apartments, under the five star New York hotels, remaining hidden from the eyes of the many humans that live on those streets. So the legend goes.
In 1935 an 8 foot gator was found in East Harlem at the the bottom of a manhole. It unfortunately was found by teen aged boys, and did not survive. At the time however, no one actually believed that it had been living down there, just that it may have fallen off of a ship coming from the Everglades, that it made its way up the Hudson River and ended up in Harlem. In 1959, a book was written by Robert Daley. This book has become known as a standardized account, of urban legends. The story follows a retired sewer worker as he discovers the ‘monsters’ in the sewers under New York City, and takes it upon himself to rid the city of this terrifying threat. This tale was told again in 1960. The ‘NY White’ was a term previously used to describe the albino alligators, but it was the 60′s, and the legend states that someone in the city had flushed, not baby alligators, but very potent marijuana seeds down the toilet during a drug raid. No one has ever seen the plants, mind you…as those interested were, of course, afraid of all the alligators that lived down there.
There have been sightings of alligators over the years, one in 2001 in Central Park and another in 2006 in Brooklyn. But experts state that the sewer systems of New York are not conducive for their survival. It is just simply to cold most of the time for them to live, and an alligator needs round the year warmth just to survive, and definitely to reproduce and thrive into colonies under the streets. Further, the sewers are just too polluted for most animal life, save perhaps the rats. The found alligators are escaped pets, the officials state. But it does add a bit of excitement, to a late night walk, and passing the steaming man hole covers, and to the imagination and to the lure and legend of such a city.
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