2. 250 Tons of Garbage Were Uncovered in Highbridge Park
Highbridge Park was largely neglected in the mid-1970s, as New York City dealt with a major financial crisis. Large sections of the park were consequently taken over by drug dealers, prostitutes and homeless people, who set up permanent encampments. Only the “most intrepid or foolhardy visitors” would dare to explore the park, which smelled of “fetid mattresses and rank pools of motor oil,” according to The New York Times.
While Highbridge Park has been restored since then, a manual cleanup was carried out during the mid-1980s, which uncovered 250 tons of garbages (and 25 auto wrecks) in the process.