UNUSUAL – alligators in the sewers? HAS Manhattan, the urban legend is so popular that it was given a bronze statue. Installed at the end of October in Union Square Parc, it will remain there until June 2024, symbol of one of the city’s most enduring myths.
It all started with rumors in the 1900s when a sewer worker told the New York Times having been bitten by a asks the alligator. And on February 9, 1935, the rumor became reality when three teenagers saw an alligator in a pipe in Harlem, and captured it by lassoing it with a clothesline. A legendary capture that made headlines: as you can see in our video aboveFebruary 9 even became the “ alligator day in the sewers ” At New York.
A news item that has become cult
Since 1935, no alligators have been seen in the city’s sewers, but that hasn’t stopped the myth from entering pop culture. The Harlem alligator, for example, inspired the character of Leatherhead, a mutant crocodile who faces the Ninja Turtles. He was also the subject of a horror comedy, Alligator. The film released in 1980 imagines the story of a baby alligator bought in Florida and flushed down the toilets of Chicago before becoming a real monster in the sewers.
A less fantasized scenario than one might think: in the 1930s, it was not unusual to come across advertisements offering the delivery of baby alligators from the southeastern United States. Today, it is still possible to send baby alligators by mail… as long as they are less than 50 cm.
If owning, buying or selling an alligator remains illegal in New York, some have already been found wandering around Manhattan. Usually these are pets abandoned by their owners and found under cars or parks, the sewers being too cold and dirty for them to survive for long. Last February, an alligator was found in a pitiful state in Brooklyn: it died a few weeks later, and the zoo that took it in reported a case of “ animal abuse ».
Read more
Also see on Le HuffPost :
In the United States, a bear breaks into a house to steal frozen lasagna
“Bigfoot” in the United States? Couple believe they filmed giant ape in Colorado
2023-10-23 15:16:12
#York #myth #alligators #sewers #popular #statue
