#holland marsh

[carbombrenee]

Holland Marsh to Richmond Hill

[sugarskulls99]

Me after reading a fluff boyfriend au and realizing he'll never be my boyfriend because he's 30+ years older than me.

[princessconsuela120]

Requests are empty lately😢 fill em on up!!! And for all of you who saw my winter fest event, I will be re-evaluating and reposting at a later date. Send them requests in!

[bked0n-lorazepam]

-Character Requests-

These are just some characters I will do from fandoms that I can think of, feel free to request any character though, even if they're not here!

I do Oneshots, Series, and SMAU's. If there's anything that you want, just ask!

*-Rules-*

The Walking Dead:

Rick Grimes, Carl Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Negan Smith, Glenn Rhee, Maggie Rhee, Enid Rhee, Michonne, Rosita, Simon, Abraham, Carol, Jesus "Paul", Shane, Sasha, Dwight, Beth

House MD:

Gregory House, Lisa Cuddy, James Wilson, Allison Cameron, Robert Chase, Eric Foreman, "Thirteen"

CreepyPasta:

Jeff The Killer, Toby Rogers, BEN Drowned, Eyeless Jack, Laughing Jack, Jane The Killer, Nina The Killer, Hoodie, Masky, Liu, Sally

Slashers/Creepos:

Billy Loomis, Stu Macher, Chucky/Charles Lee Ray, Brahms Heelshire, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, BeetleJuice

Criminal Minds:

Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Penelope Garcia, Tara Lewis, Cat Adams, George Foyet

White Collar:

Peter Burke, Elizabeth Burke, Neal Caffrey, Alex Hunter, Diana Berrigan, Lauren Cruz, Clinton Jones

Hannibal NBC:

Will Graham, Hannibal Lecter, Alana Bloom, Beverly Katz, Freddie Lounds

Marvel Universe:

Loki Laufeyson, Mobius Mobius, Thor Odinson, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfied, and Tom Holland), MJ Watson, Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, Prince T'Challa, Princess Shuri, Okoye, Carol Danvers, Gamora, Peter Quill, Nebula

IT (2017 and 2019):

Patrick Hockstetter, Henry Bowers, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Beverly Marsh, Stanley Uris, Pennywise

Stranger Things:

Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Joyce Byers, Jonathon Byers, Jim Hopper, Max Mayfield, Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Karen Wheeler, Dr. Brenner, Argyle, Billy Hargrove

Once Upon a Time:

Rumplestiltskin, Emma Swan, Prince Charming, Snow White, Regina Mills, Henry Mills, Killian Jones, Baelfire, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Belle, August/Pinocchio, Ruby/Red, Zelena

Good Omens:

Crowley, Aziraphale, Gabriel, Anathema Device, Newton "Newt" Pulsifer, Beelzebub, Muriel

Avatar:

Jake Sully, Neytiri, Kiri (No smut), Lo'ak (No smut), Neteyam (No smut)

The Boys:

Homelander, Billy Butcher, Becca Butcher, Frenchie, Hughie Campbell, Mothers Milk, Queen Maeve, Starlight, A-Train, Deep, Black Noir, Firecracker, Kimiko "The Female", Ashley Barret, Ryan Butcher (No smut), Victoria Neuman, Soldier Boy

[ofmdrecaps]

08/31/2024 - 09/01/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Samba Schutte; Kristian Nairn; Vico Ortiz; Guz Khan; Happy DickFuck/Be A Lighthouse Day!; Bisexual Awareness Month; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Our Flag Means Fanfiction; Be a Lighthouse!; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

Hey friends, things are slowly progressing on things with my dad and his surgery recovery. Each day things get a little better but it's gonna be a really long road to recovery. Hopefully we're out of the worst of it. I'm still gonna try to keep up with recap stuff as best I can, but they'll probably still be late because of the uncertainty of timing right now. Thank you all so much for all the kind words and well wishes and all the patience. I hope you're staying well <3

== Taika Waititi ==

More Taika out with VasJMorgan and Rita and friends in Ibiza back in August.

Source: VasJMorgan's Instagram

== Con O'Neill ==

Con's done with vacation in Mexico! Hope it was relaxing!

Source: Con's Instagram

== Samba Schutte ==

Hey! Samba's gonna be on the Geekspace podcast again for his new movie Advanced Chemistry! You can check the episode out on spotify below!

Samba was also out to visit his extended family in Holland!

Source: Samba's Instagram

== Kristian Nairn ==

Reminder, you can still get signed copies of Kristian's book coming out this month on his Linktr.ee! https://linktr.ee/kristiannairn Kristian was featured in a Polygon article about his new book! Full link and highlights below.

Source: Kristian Nairn's Instagram

== Vico Ortiz ==

Vico's film Lesbophila was chosen as the Official Selection for Long Beach Film Festival 2024! Sunday the 9th, at 1:15 pm they'll be in the "Women In Shorts" block. You can get tickets here.

Source: LesbophiliaFilm Instagram

== Guz Khan ==

Some love from a fan for Guz <3

Source: Guz's Instagram stories

== Happy DickFuck Day ==

Thank you to the awesome ofmdnocontext on instagram for the fabulous stills for this, September 1st (on an actual leap year!) aka DickFuck Day! Also known as Be A Lighthouse days by some as well!

Source: OFMDNoContext Instagram

== Bisexual Awareness Month ==

Happy Bisexual Awareness month to all our lovely Bi+ Crew members! Please know my dear lovelies, you are valid and you are seen. It doesn't matter who you're in a relationship with, or what sexual experiences you've had. You're valid in your sexuality and romantic attractions. Love you friends! For those not already aware, Bi+ represents the the bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, which includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid (source).

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A post shared by Queer Chameleon (@queeeerchameleon)

Source: QueeerChameleon on Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

I'm very behind again on the cast cards by the brilliant @melvisik! First up! We have Scott Marsh, another of our stunt performers, and Jacob Tomuri, one of our stunt coordinators!

Next up is Alexa Stollmeyer, a visual effects coordinator and Cynthia Pusheck, one of our S1 Cinemtographers!

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

= Our Flag Means Fanfiction =

New Epitizer available this week from Our Flag Means Fanfiction! "Close to Home" by our beloved @xoxoemynn! Read by @babykrakenpodfics!

Source: OFMFF Instagram

= Be A Light House =

In honor of Sept 1/2, Just a quick reminder that our amazing friend @blueberreads released this fabulous Be A Lighthouse- a Monkey Island Inspired point and click game! If you havent played it yet, please check it out here!

Source: Blueberreads Twitter

PS: I wanted to spotlight OFMD Smaugust works since it's the end of the month but I've been swamped with family stuff. It'll be late, but it's coming!

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies, hopefully life is treating you well. I hope you're getting a day off this Monday, but if not, please remember to take some time another day to rest if you can. Rest is so incredibly important. We need it to be able to recover from the crazyness that is our everyday lives. We all deal with a lot, and no one knows the extent at which we go through things, so you have to be your own advocate sometimes when it comes to rest. You deserve rest, no matter what you got done today, no matter how much you had the day before. Sending love and good vibes your way, and a couple extra love notes. You're powerful, and wonderful, and kind, and you deserve the best, lovelies.

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A post shared by Barbara ✨🐞 (@joyfulsmolthings)

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A post shared by Case Kenny (@case.kenny)

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Idk about the theme today, I was going through gifs and my son really laughed at these two, so he helped pick them out tonight. Gifs courtesy of the darling @sherlockig and @brizzystar

[jakessbtch]

☆ request list | j.b

what i can/will write!

x reader [y/n, __, ect.] fluff, angst, smut character x character

what i will not write!

basics [r4cism, p3dophilia, ect.] smut for characters/persons under 18 y/o/a [including actors.] smut for ageless characters/persons. heavy gore. romanticization of SA, Gr00ming, SH, R4pe, ED's. abuse + physical/emotional cheating.

fandoms/persons i currently write for!

Trap House! Jake Webber. Sam Golbach. Colby Brock.

Youtubers! Tara Yummy. Johnnie Guilbert.

Spider-Man! Peter Parker [earth-199999/Tom Holland] Peter Parker [earth-120703/Andrew Garfield] Peter Parker [earth-96283/Tobey Maguire] Hobie Brown

IT [2019]! Bill Denbrough [19] Beverly Marsh [19] Richie Tozier [19 + Male Reader ONLY] Eddie Kasprak [19] Mike Hanlon [19] Ben Hanscom [19]

IANOWT! Stanley Barber Sydney Novak Dina Bryant Brad Lewis

masterlist.

[fatehbaz]

Italian fascism was trying to defeat a nature [...] by declaring it a priority to civilize the marshes of the Pontine Plain. [...] The swampland was still the habitat of the anopheles mosquito and the dominion of the “Goddess of Fever.” [...] [A] flaw of a primal [...] nature, [...] unproductive [...]. The efforts to create “an idyllic rural area consonant with fascist ideals of productivity [...] within the state’s interests” included extensive electrification of the region, constructing thousands of kilometres of roads and canals and “large pumping and drainage plants called impianti idrovori (drainage pumping stations), in Italian literally ‘water-eating’ machinery plants,” founding an anti-malaria institute, having war veterans plant the region with water-absorbing [non-native] eucalyptus trees (these plants performed their job too well, which is why they were later torn out again at great expense [...]), stocking fish [...], establishing an anti-mosquito militia, and putting up children’s camps whose buildings were wrapped in ten layers of wire to protect them from mosquitoes. “The fascist emphasis on the technical and technological aspects of the land reclamation programme were also characteristic of a positivistic view of [technology and institutionalized knowledge] [...] aimed at controlling, rationalizing and ultimately creating an imperium over a previously unknown or ‘untamed’ area.”

Text by: Fahim Amir. “Cloudy Swords.” e-flux Journal Issue #115. February 2021. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

---

On 24 December 1928 Italy’s fascist regime launched [...] a fourteen-year national land reclamation programme aimed at [...] Italy’s ‘death inducing’ swamps [...]. The Pontine Marshes, a marshland spreading across 75,000 hectares south of Rome was given top priority [...]. [T]he fascist regime used an extensive propaganda machinery to promote the programme [...] as a heroic quest [...]. Newsreels documented step by step the struggle [...], with Mussolini himself often featuring, overseeing the project, or even working the land. [...] This policy [...] aimed [...] [at] improving [...] existing cities by removing “unhealthy” urban areas, through the process of sventramento (disembowelment). [...] Indeed, the project exhibits many similarities in aims and scope to a number of modernising plans that were materialised across the world at around the same time: the Tuscan maremma (1928), a large scale coastal reclamation project; the Zuiderzee dyke project in Holland (1920-1932), which produced the Ijsselmeer, an enclosed area of water that would later host urban settlements [...]; Spain’s ambitious national hydrological plan that would “correct hydrologically the national geographical problem” by introducing a system of dams [...]; Switzerland’s Linth valley hydro engineering scheme that drained marshland and provided the geographical basis for a unified [nationalist] Swiss identity [...]; Greece’s Marathon dam project, that would produce Athens as a western sanitized metropolis [...]. All of these projects shared [...] the desire to link these socially constructed techno-natures to a broader project of promoting national unity and [nationalist] identity.

Text by: Federico Caprotti and Maria Kaika. “Producing the ideal fascist landscape: nature, materiality and the cinematic representation of land reclamation in the Pontine Marshes.” Social & Cultural Geography Volume 9. 2008. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

[pers-books]

Today's library haul (from top to bottom):

Crossley-Holland - The Anglo-Saxon World Peter Ross - Steeple Chasing Annabel Abbs - Wind Swept Ngaio Marsh - Tied Up In Tinsel Ngaio Marsh - A Grave Mistake Ngaio Marsh - A Man Lay Dead, Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murder (one volume) Ngaio Marsh - Off With His Head, Singing in the Shrouds, False Scent (one volume)

[marvelsfavoriteuncle]

What If…Jason and Liz had a kid?

——

On today’s episode of What If…? What if Jason and Liz had a son or daughter?

Which would result in Tony having a cousin meanwhile Rei would have a cousin-ish too 💭

The poor young avengers having more Stark-Underwood in the house 😉

—

I bet 5 bucks this kid comes out as a brunette cuz if your a Stark your AUTOMATICALLY a brunette. It’s just facts. Jason and Maria’s gene didn’t even try in the hair department no sir 😂 OR maybe we do get a blonde one?

—

Here are my picks for kid FCs

~ Lilly Colins

~ Louis Partridge

~ Olivia Holt

~ Charles Gillespie

~ Peyton List

~ Wolfgang Novogratz

~ Timothee Chalamet

~ Willa Holland

~~~~~~

Other options include (can’t include gifs cuz of Tumblr’s limitations 🙄)

~ Luna Blaise

~ Logan Lerman

~ Natalia Dyer

~ Logan Shroyer (he played the son for Male!Liz FC hehe)

——-

It would be interesting that this child was created in a lab using their DNA somehow? Idk haha

Years later the kid shows up claiming proudly that they are their parents.

“Dad.” Said the kid.

Liz glared, “I told you said you were loyal JJ!”

Then the kid added, “Mommy.”

Jason eye widen, “Oh! Who’s un-loyal now?!”

+++

Anyways let me know what you think?

~ @luna-d-marsh @rickb-chaos @ask-starrk @trulysummersprivate @missstrawbs2001 @purpleprincessonfyre @elzabeth-stark @gcthvile @aidanxsophxoxo

[ericsfanfictions]

New Demigod Cabin: Antheia

Antheia is a minor goddess of flower wreaths, blossoms, gardens and love as well as vegetation, marshes and swamps. As a flowery goddess of beauty and love she's naturally one of Aphrodite's attendants and is sometimes considered to be one of the Charites. Golden colored natural things like honey, myrrh, and amber are associated with her. In ancient times her center of worship was on the island of Crete, and in the present day she often spends time in the Everglades and the Louisiana bayous and other wetlands. As a result, her demigod children are often from the South and can usually speak Spanish or French dialects in addition to English.

The cabin is green with various swamp creatures painted on the outside, flower garlands around the windows, and an especially intricate wreath on the door. Inside there are pots of water filled with swamp plants, and the air always has a floral scent. The fabrics and floor are decorated with lotus, water lily, and cattail motifs. Flower garlands hang from the ceiling, and personalized wreaths hang above each bed. There is a pet flamingo named Florianus who lives outside the cabin and can communicate with its inhabitants.

When Antheia claims her children, a floral wreath symbol appears above their head, which then bursts into a cloud of flower petals. Demigod children of Antheia are often blond and always have amber colored eyes. The cabin's counselor wears a golden necklace decorated with alligator teeth. They love citrus drinks and iced tea as well as Cajun and Caribbean food. They're very attractive and charming and enjoy wearing gold jewelry. However, they're less vain than other children of love/beauty deities and aren't afraid to get their hands dirty due to their connection to swamps. Antheia's children tend to be artsy and creative and are good gardeners. They also tend to be avid environmentalists and conservationists and nature photography is often a hobby. They enjoy visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras. They get along well with children of other love or nature deities. They often make wreaths to decorate for holidays or to donate to cemeteries for Veteran's Day.

Antheia's children have some healing ability due to their knowledge of plants and herbs. If they're fighting and there are many flowering plants nearby, the demigods can use the pollen to mess with their foes. They're resistant to mosquitoes and can send clouds of them to attack opponents, as well as summon nearby swamp creatures. These demigods can also control any nearby mud in various ways to attack opponents, but swamp mud is especially strong.

A child of Antheia can enter any building that has a wreath hanging on the front door. This only works if the wreath was placed there by an owner of inhabitant of the building. In modern times the practice of honoring the dead with wreaths at their tombs has allowed Antheia to slowly develop a weak connection to the dead. Her children can't summon the dead, but if they visit a grave of someone whose tombstone has a wreath or floral decoration carved on it then they can speak with the person's spirit, though they can't see it.

Historical Demigods/Legacies: Daniel Seghers, Ernest F. Coe, Marianne Celeste Dragon, Ricou Browining

Cabin Members: Fleur and Toussaint Desrosiers, Lucy Holland, Lily Kranz, Louis Sallis

[noloveforned]

tonight i'm on wlur from 8pm until midnight with the last 'regular' no love for ned of the year. hopefully next week will be a holiday show and we'll wrap up december with a 'best of 2003' show. if you're doing something fabulous with your friday night then you can always stream last week's show on mixcloud whenever you'd like!

no love for ned on wlur – december 8th, 2023 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label leyna noel // cling peaches // the honest voluptuary // (self-released) feeling figures // across the line // migration magic // perennial / k sundae painters // hollow way // sundae painters // leather jacket the lewers // postcards for terrorists // 518a // lulu's sonic disc club heavy meddo featuring garrett t. capps // she's about a mover // she's about a mover 7" // ebb people mover // not // not digital single // little lunch the belair lip bombs // i think i like you // songs to do your laundry to ep // (self-released) virvon varvon // voices // voices cassette // girlsville erik nervous // innanet // immaturity // feel it dick move // i am enough // wet // 1:12 horn // all my breathing // horn cassette // melted ice cream palberta // trick ya // bye bye berta // wharf cat elkhorn featuring eva sheppard and katie degentesh // star power // lagniappe sessions // (self-released) monocot // aunt marsh // leave to cool // astral editions bonnie 'prince' billy // keeping secrets will destroy you // keeping secrets will destroy you digital single // drag city icy demons // manny's // fight back! // cloud byard lancaster // it's not up to us // it's not up to us // superior viaduct tani tabbal quartet // reach forward // intentional // mahakala music the southern university jazz ensemble // music came // goes to africa with love // now again sam gendel and marcella cytrynowicz // ij // audiobook // psychic hotline akai solo // black flash // verticality/singularity // break all mike featuring liv.e and venna // u think maybe? // burning desire // 10k teleclere // steal your love // affection/defection // tidal waves j.j. fad // supersonic // supersonic // ruthless beyoncé // my house // my house digital single // parkwood entertainment holland // futaki horns // green text // teenbeat nnamdï // wouldn't it be nice // fader and friends volume one compilation // fader pop filter // indulged in myself // cono // bobo integral non la // homes // homes digital single // mint lightheaded // patti girl // good good great! cassette // slumberland sullen eyes // getting there // hardwood floors and a hand to hold // sunday soft covers // the real housewives of porpoise spit // soft serve // little lunch

[hederasgarden]

Really glad you're writing about RG's characters again. What type of mythical creatures (werewolf/vampire/etc) do you think the different Goose characters would be?

Ooo this is a fun question. I love these types of asks. Fair warning, I haven't seen the Goose's whole filmography, so I'm only going to do the ones I am familiar with.

Also, I'm curious to see what other people think his characters would be!

Sierra Six and Colt Seavers

I feel like both these characters would be werewolves. They both have the physicality and are pretty beefy. Six would be more of the lone wolf type while I think Colt would prefer being part of a pack.

Jacob Palmer

This may be an obvious one, but I think he'd be an Incubus. He's got that natural charm and sexual appeal. Obviously, he has more depth but in a lot of ways when we meet his character he is driven by his sexual appetite and desire.

Driver

There are a few creatures he could be but I'm leaning towards vampire. There's something about how lean and pretty he is in this movie coupled with his ability to move quietly and violently.

Holland Marsh

Possibly a satyr. That poor man just wants to enjoy a drink and a smoke in peace. He also loves a good party.

Officer K

I am pretty stumped on this one. I wanna say some creature that is bound to another or lacks free will. Possibly also a werewolf, battling with his nature and having to follow the orders while wishing he was more human.

[xtruss]

Kayaking The Waters That Shaped New York City

As NYC Turns 400, One of the Best Ways of Understanding What Propelled the City's Astronomical Growth is by Paddling the Rivers that Built it.

— Eliot Stein | Wednesday 11 September 2024

Credit: Markley Boyer & Eric W Sanderson, from Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

Somewhere near Inwood Hill Park, home to the last native forests on the Island of Manhattan, the jackhammering racket of the city softened and an orchestra of crickets trilled in unison. I paddled closer to the water's edge, where a tangle of gnarled tree roots gripped boulders deposited during the last Ice Age. Just then, a great blue heron swooped low, landing on a small sandy cove before disappearing into the reeds towards the last remnant of the original salt marshes that once surrounded Manhattan.

"Finally," I thought, after spending the day kayaking around one of the most man-made places on the planet. "Maybe this is something the island's original residents might recognise."

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of New York City – or, more accurately, The Dutch Settlement of New Amsterdam that would grow to become one of the world's greatest cities. It's a complicated milestone, and for years officials have been grappling over what, if anything, they should do to observe the event.

According to historian Russell Shorto, the founding of New Amsterdam 400 years ago is when America began. Credit: Getty Images

As Russell Shorto, author of the best-selling book The Island at the Center of the World explained, this tiny Dutch settlement effectively birthed "The World's First Modern City" – a place powered by pluralism and capitalism under the promise that anyone, regardless of where they came from, could make something of themselves.

"If what made America great was its ingenious openness to different cultures, the small triangle of land at the southern tip of Manhattan island is the birthplace of that idea: this island city would become the first multiethnic, upwardly mobile society on America's shores, a prototype of the kind of society that would be duplicated throughout the country and around the world,'' he writes. More so than Boston, Plymouth Rock or Jamestown, "Manhattan Is Where America Began."

At the same time, the Dutch created this multiethnic society by removing Native people from their lands and importing enslaved Africans to build much of Lower Manhattan. "They brought tolerance and intolerance; capitalism and colonialism. We have to process both of these things in a nuanced way that acknowledges their achievements and failures," Shorto told the BBC.

"Manhattan Is Where America Began."

As a result, the few events honouring the city's quadricentennial have tried to carefully balance how this settlement forever shaped the nation with its dark legacies of land dispossession and slavery. "We're viewing this anniversary more as a commemoration as opposed to a celebration," said Sarah Cooney, the executive director of the Holland Society of New York, which is co-sponsoring a picnic on 14 September at Governors Island, where the Dutch Landed in 1624 before permanently settling in southern Manhattan soon after.

Those early immigrants never could have foreseen that the far-flung fur trading outpost they established would one day rise to become the most linguistically diverse city in history, nor that it would play host to a remarkable experiment that continues to this day: to see whether all the peoples of the world could live together in a single place.

New York City is believed to be the most linguistically diverse city to have ever existed. Credit: Getty Images

In many ways, Manhattan stands as the ultimate triumph of man over nature. But while it may be tempting to view it today less as an island and more as a cement reef covered by steel skyscrapers and manicured parks, the story of how this relatively small 23-square-mile enclave grew to become the economic capital of the world is directly attributable to a natural phenomenon many New Yorkers have long forgotten: its access to water.

"It's all about the water. The entire city is about the water," said Captain Jonathan Boulware, the president and CEO of the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan. "The growth of New York into the city we know today as a global capital, a cultural capital and a multicultural city, every single aspect of its identity is rooted in water and its connections to the rest of the world."

And so, as the city reflects on the many things that have made New York "New York" over the last 400 years, I lowered myself into a kayak and set out on a 30-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan in hopes of better understanding the one thing that made it all possible. It turns out that this nine-hour journey isn't just one of the most unique ways of seeing New York City, but a dramatic reminder of how Manhattan is rediscovering its relationship to the very rivers that shaped it.

A Front Door Into The New World

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English explorer hired by the Dutch to find the fabled Northwest Passage to Asia, steered his ship from the churning waters of the Atlantic into an immense protected bay. He pushed 150 miles upstream on the mile-wide river that would one day bear his name, hoping it led to China. It didn't. But while Hudson had failed to find a faster route to the riches of the East, he stumbled on one of the world's largest natural harbours.

Sheltered from the sea's wrath by Staten Island and Long Island and stretching across a 770-mile network of navigable waterways extending into the continent's interior, this geographical gem wasn't just "a safe and convenient haven, wherein 1,000 ships may ride in safety", as the Dutch chronicler Adriaen van der Donck wrote in 1650, but a front door into the untapped resources of the New World.

The Dutch settled Manhattan because of its incredible access to (and protection from) the sea, and its network of navigable waterways into the interior. Credit: Getty Images

"The harbour of New York is like no other. It's a marvel. It's wide, it's so deep it rarely freezes and it serves as the nexus for two bodies of water [the Hudson and East rivers] that come together to transport goods," said Dr Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society.

This immense commercial potential is what attracted the Dutch to Manhattan from the start. At a time when the most efficient way to move cargo over long distances was by water, the Dutch Republic catapulted from relative obscurity to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world by controlling maritime trade. It's also what made Manhattan distinct from other early US settlements. Unlike the Puritans who founded Boston, the Quakers who came to Philadelphia and the Catholics who arrived in Maryland, the Dutch didn't settle Manhattan to worship in peace; they came to make money.

"The Dutch basically created a colony dedicated to capitalism. They didn't really care about religion; they were open to anybody involved in commerce," said Dr Gretchen Sorin, a historian and the director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York at Oneonta. "And so from the very beginning, New York has always been an incredibly diverse place." According to one document, by 1646 the island was home to some "400-500 men of different sects and nations" speaking about "18 different languages".

But as Shorto explained, "Manhattan was a cultural crossroads long before Europeans arrived there. It wasn't just the Lenape who used it to fish and exchange goods, but also the Shinnecock and other [Native Algonquin] peoples from the whole region who came to take advantage of the harbour and rivers."

Before the Dutch arrived, Mannahatta was an incredibly biodiverse island. Credit: Markley Boyer & Eric W Sanderson, from Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

After the Dutch purchased Mannahatta or "Island of Many Hills", as it was known, from the Lenape in 1626, more and more seafaring entrepreneurs poured into the harbour to navigate up these rivers, shipping beaver pelts, tobacco and grain from the continent's interior back to Europe. The Dutch eventually declared the settlement a free-trade zone in 1640, and by the time the British took it at cannon point in 1664 and renamed it after the Duke of York, this ambitious, polyglot little seaport had planted the seeds of religious tolerance, individualism and enterprise that would eventually spread across the nation.

Mannahatta: An Ecological Oasis

When the Dutch arrived on Mannahatta, it was a stunningly biodiverse place. In his book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, landscape ecologist Eric W Sanderson details that in 1609 the island was home to 66 miles of rivers and streams, 233 species of birds, 32 types of reptiles and amphibians, 70 kinds of trees, 24 species of mammals and 55 different ecosystems – which is more, per acre, than Yosemite and Yellowstone or a typical coral reef or rainforest of the same size. "If Mannahatta existed today as it did then," he writes, "it would be the crowning glory of American national parks."

The British soon surpassed the Dutch as the greatest maritime empire on Earth and Manhattan became a nexus point for the flow of goods and people around the globe. Coopers, blacksmiths, sailmakers and shipbuilders began flooding to the island city, and by the 1770s, New York had become "the breadbasket of the Atlantic", shipping wheat and timber to Britain and importing rum, molasses and sugar – as well as enslaved people – from the Caribbean and Africa. The city would burn at the end of the American Revolution, but over the next few decades, it would become the largest place in the western hemisphere – all thanks to water.

In 1795, New York replaced Philadelphia as the country's main port, and as more ships from around the world flooded in and out of the harbour, the city expanded north from the southern tip of Manhattan at astonishing speed. Old Dutch farms and English estates were quickly carved up into smaller and smaller plots until DeWitt Clinton (arguably the greatest or worst New Yorker in history) spearheaded two ideas that would forever change Manhattan.

The first was to level the entire natural geography of the island to accommodate its growing seaport. In 1811, the city filled in its marshes, paved over its spring-fed ponds and levelled the oak and hemlock forests where wolves and bear once roamed, replacing it all with a massive 11,000-acre street grid that turned this "island of hills" into an island of rectangles.

By 1900, New York harbour was the busiest port in the world and Manhattan was the centre of a new global supply chain. Credit: Alamy

The second was the construction of a 363-mile-long ditch connecting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it not only paved the way for Manhattan to become an industrial juggernaut by giving it direct water access to the Midwest, but transformed the young nation by allowing the mass movement of goods, ideas and people across the country. The city was on its way to becoming the busiest port in the World and the centre of a new global supply chain connecting the continent with the rest of the globe. As Manhattan exploded with industry and became the place to do business, so many immigrants steamed into the harbour that according to Census records, by 1860 nearly 70% of adults in New York City were born outside the US.

Manhattan: America's Emporium

The book Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 reveals that by 1836, 62% of all imports to the US came through Manhattan, and on a single day that year, 921 boats on the East River waited to dock on South Street, while an another 320 waited on the Hudson.

"If you look at aerial photos of Manhattan [in the late 1800s and early 1900s], it's so completely ringed with piers that it looks like a porcupine," Boulware said. "These ships were coming from all over the world to load and unload cargo, and there were a lot of entrepreneurs trying to creatively turn $5 into $6 on those docks. It was an early example of the New York hustle. This is the DNA of the city and the port and water is the core of it."

As planes started replacing passenger liners and container ships were diverted to New Jersey in the 1950s, Manhattan's maritime industry began to collapse. Over the coming decades, piers and warehouses were abandoned, docks fell into decay and New York Harbor, which had been one of the most diverse and dynamic environments on the planet when the Dutch showed up, became a de facto dump.

But in the last decade, billions of dollars have been pumped into cleaning up the city's waterways, a string of ambitious projects have transformed Manhattan's rusting piers into landscaped green spaces and the city's once-derelict waterfront has become a model of urban renewal. As a result, more than four centuries after Hudson's crew reported that waves of Lenape came out to greet their ship in "great canoes" as they approached the island, Manhattan is returning to its water-bound roots, and quickly emerging as one of the US's most unique paddling destinations.

Many boathouses now offer free kayaking all over New York City. Credit: Alamy

"There's no place like it in the country," said Suzy Basu, managing partner of Manhattan Kayak Co, which offers hourly rentals, classes and guided tours around the city – including a 30-mile lap of Manhattan. "So many people here don't even realise Manhattan is an island, but when you paddle around this magnificent, man-made mountain range of towers shooting into the sky, it changes your whole perspective of the city. You'll see."

Kayaking Manhattan

Pushing out of Pier 84 and into the Hudson's swift tidal flow, it quickly became clear that the key to navigating Manhattan's waterways on your own power is something the island's Indigenous residents understood long ago: it's all about the current.

The original Algonquin name for the Hudson River was Mahicantuck or "river that flows two ways". That's because, like the East River that rings Manhattan's opposite end (which isn't actually a river but a tidal strait), its current changes direction every few hours as it flows in and out of the ocean. Therefore, our floating parade of 14 kayakers and four stand up paddleboarders would travel counterclockwise around the island in a perfectly timed route designed to take advantage of the rivers' shifting currents.

Accompanying us were three guides armed with two-way radios whose job was to safely navigate us through the rush of ferries, barges and sightseeing cruises – one of whom was Eric Stiller, Manhattan Kayak Co's 64-year-old founder, who estimates he's circumnavigated the island 80 to 100 times. He explained that back in the 1980s, there was no access to the water for paddlers anywhere, so he used to jump fences and launch his foldable kayak in the Hudson from rotting piers. As word of his exploits spread, people started paying him to lead them out into the rivers where no one else dared go.

"My first paying customer was [American singer] David Lee Roth, followed soon after by John F Kennedy Jr," he said, as we paddled towards the glimmering pinnacles of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings in the distance. "We used to wheel kayaks out [in the Meatpacking District], jump the fence and paddle out to Ellis Island. That's how this all started."

Fast-forward to today and the New York City Water Trail connects paddlers with 160 square miles of navigable waterways, dozens of launch sites dot the city and many of Manhattan's newly opened boathouses now offer free kayaking.

As the current carried us south along the 550-acre Hudson River Park that runs along Manhattan's western shore, the island's recent waterfront revival unfolded in front of us. Since first opening in 1998, the park has been slowly transforming many of the collapsing piers that once propelled the city's growth into creative urban oases – all while paying homage to Manhattan's maritime past and incorporating native ecosystems that thrived here 400 years ago.

We soon paddled past Little Island, a $260m "floating park" rising like a bouquet of tulip-shaped concrete columns from the Hudson that opened in 2021. Built atop the former Cunard Line dock that shipped people and goods between Manhattan and the British Empire (and next to the pier where the survivors from the Titanic landed in 1912), it's home to 350 species of flowers, trees and shrubs that Mannahatta's early residents would recognise today.

Moments later, we drifted past Gansevoort Peninsula, where novelist Herman Melville spent years working as a customs inspector at the wharf after writing Moby Dick. Opened in 2023, the park features a restored marsh, native grasses and a 1,200-ton sand beach designed to mirror those that lined the island's western shore when the Dutch arrived.

The $260m Little Island park now rises from the nubs of Manhattan's commercial piers. Credit: Getty Images

Tribeca's 2.5-acre "ecologically themed" Pier 26 then came into view, where a newly planted woodland forest, coastal grassland and maritime scrub is designed to mimic the river's original coastal habitat. A brand-new "Estuarium" opened in January 2024 featuring a playground inspired by fish species that thrived in the Hudson before European colonisation, and as I looked to my left, I spotted children climbing into the gills of a colossal Atlantic sturgeon.

Work is underway on the other side of Manhattan, too, where the East Midtown Waterfront project is part of a grand vision to close the loop and provide New Yorkers with continuous waterfront open space around Manhattan once it's completed in 2026.

As we approached the southern tip of Manhattan where the Dutch settled, a sudden "Hold!" command from Stiller thrust me back into the present. Four centuries later, these waters remain Manhattan's busiest maritime throughfare. With boats and barges rumbling all around us, Stiller explained that once he gave the signal, we had exactly 10 minutes to round the island's southern point before the next Staten Island ferry stormed by.

I glanced over at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on my right, One World Trade Center on my left and snapped a quick picture with my phone. Then, one of our guides, Tommy Montgomery said, "You're going to want to secure that now before we get to Hell Gate."

"Before we get to what?" I asked.

But before he could reply, Stiller shouted, "Now, now, now!"

Top: Paddlers pass under 21 bridges when circumnavigating Manhattan, including the Brooklyn Bridge. Credit: Eliot Stein Bottom: One thousand ships every year used to crash at Hell Gate, and when officials blew up its bedrock in 1885, the explosion was heard 50 miles away. Credit: Alamy

Paddling as hard as we could, our crew quickly crossed the channel, caught the East River's flood tide and shot north on an 11-knot (12.5 mph) highway past the last 19th-Century cargo sailing ship still docked at the historic South Street Seaport and under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. At one point, I noticed we were zipping past a kid biking along the East River Greenway. As we neared the northern tip of Roosevelt Island, Montgomery looked back at me.

"Okay, this" he said, "this is Hell Gate. Stay to the left and paddle hard."

Coined by the Dutch (Helle Gadt) and known as the most notorious stretch of the city's complex waterways, Hell Gate is the swirling, churning, narrow tidal strait where the Harlem and East rivers meet. It's also the final resting place of hundreds of ships. But because successfully traversing it could save merchants sailing from New York Harbor to New England days of travel, so many sailors tried to run its gauntlet that in the 1850s, an estimated 1,000 ships ran aground here every year. In 1885, at the height of Manhattan's maritime might, officials determined that subduing this treacherous passageway was so crucial to the nation's economy that the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up its bedrock with 300,000 lbs of explosives in the largest planned detonation before the atomic bomb.

Today, the confluence remains chaotic and unpredictable – akin to "paddling through a whirlpool", as Stiller later told me – but with the currents working in our favour, we were soon beached at Randall's Island.

One of the consequences planners likely didn't consider when they paved over Manhattan's natural topography is that there are virtually no places people can feasibly stop when kayaking around it – even for a bathroom break. A rocky beach on Randall's Island is one of the few exceptions. So as the other paddlers downed their energy bars and I tucked into my Bodega Sandwich, I took a moment to meet them.

Of the group's 17 other paddlers, 11 were women and only one other person had never completed "the circ". There was Nick Avrutin, who said he spends so much time on the water with Manhattan Kayak Co that he now stores his kayak at the boathouse; Stacey Hull, who was attempting her first circ on a stand up paddleboard after many in a kayak; and Giandomenica Becchio, who travels from her home in Turin, Italy, to New York every summer to lap the island.

"When you get on the water, it really gives you a different perspective of what the city is," said Eva Rivlin, looking down at a crab that had washed up on the beach. "Our shorelines are these incredible, diverse ecosystems, and to see it from this perspective, you really understand not only the scale of the city but how it all fits together."

As we chatted, a family waded into the water nearby. Officials maintain that after decades of neglect and abuse (and a more-than $45bn restoration effort), the city's waterways are now cleaner and healthier than they've been since the Civil War. In fact, many experts agree that it's generally safe to swim in the Hudson, and I even spotted a swimmer tearing through the river later that day. Rivlin pointed across the river to one of the 700 outfalls that dump billions of gallons of sewage into the city's waterways each year, but she also pointed towards a rusting pier reclaimed by the Billion Oyster Project, whose ambitious goal is to restore the 220,000 acres of oyster reefs that sustained the Lenape and nourished the Dutch.

"People still have this perception that the water is dirty and not safe, and it's still dirty, but it's incredible the developments in the last 15-20 years that have changed it by leaps and bounds," Rivlin said.

A 1,000-Year-Old Rock in Inwood Hill Park marks the site where the Dutch allegedly purchased Manhattan. Credit: Alamy

Two hours and 13 bridges later, we had finally paddled our way out of the Harlem River's modern industrial sprawl and reached the island's northern tip at Inwood Hill Park, where Mannahatta's primordial past still defies Manhattan's paved presence. It's perhaps fitting that here, just a few steps from a series of caves used by the island's Native inhabitants for millennia, a 1,000-year-old rock marks the site where the Lenape purportedly sold the island to the Dutch four centuries ago.

Moments after I watched the heron vanish into the reeds, the trilling of crickets was swept aside by the whooshing traffic and whirring helicopters of the city. My fleeting glimpse of Mannahatta was gone – or so I thought.

As we waited for the Hudson's current to shift so it could carry us south towards the soaring skyscrapers of Midtown, it occurred to me that for as much as this island had changed in the last 400 years, one part of its natural landscape remained the same – and it had been guiding me around Manhattan all day.

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House of Cards

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nmuPqae by GhostReaderWriter Richie gets a panicked call from his cousin, Mike, begging someone named 'El' to bring his sister back. So Richie does what he usually does: he calls an emergency meeting. WIP Words: 109, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016), IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: The Party (Stranger Things), The Losers Club (IT), Joyce Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Billy Hargrove, Chrissy Cunningham, Barbara "Barb" Holland, Argyle (Stranger Things), Suzie Bingham, Neil Hargrove, Susan Hargrove, Jason Carver, Wayne Munson, Original Male Character(s) Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson/Original Male Character(s), Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Barbara "Barb" Holland/Nancy Wheeler, Argyle/Jonathan Byers, Suzie Bingham/Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley/Chrissy Cunningham, The Losers Club (IT) & The Party (Stranger Things) Additional Tags: My First AO3 Post, just testing the waters, Don't Read This, please read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nmuPqae

[dogpatchphotography]

Holland Marsh

Planting

R.S.Burlton

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A storm drain empties into a marsh along the Holland River in Newmarket.