Welcome back to the final blog post of the semester!

Today, we’ll be diving into the human history of the Burlington waterfront. Beginning in the 1850’s, the lumber industry was a large economic driver of the city of Burlington, and served as the third largest lumber port in the United States. To support storage, siding, and commercial build up, the waterfront underwent repeated expansion. In the early 20th century, the waterfront began to change as a result in the decline of the lumber industry through the construction of railroad. But by the mid 1900’s, rail was in decline and the area became involved as a bulk petroleum facility which was quite lucrative. This continued up until the late 1980’s, at which point Burlington’s waterfront was experiencing a decline in petroleum, rail, and other forms of profit as well as a serious degradation of the land. Rundown industrial buildings, barbed wire, inaccessible North end, and rubble.

At this point, then-mayor Bernie Sanders enacted a Public Trust Doctrine as restoration of the waterfront for public recreational purposes. During this project, major clean up projects went underway, historical evidence was documented by underwater cameras as a means of logging shipwrecks and old pilings, and a lot of planning.

ECHO opened in 2003, serving as a vital place of experiential learning, community involvement, and history museum. Additionally, replica lighthouses and waterfront affordable housing were constructed.

Currently, the Burlington waterfront is a gorgeous place of recreation, offering beautiful mountain and lake views. The bike path in addition to the park and boardwalk are excellent places to run, bike, or stroll. It is a communal area that is well kept and family friendly.

If you’re interested, check out the rusty remains of industrial piling at my waterfront location which is a jetty into Lake Champlain (near the dog park!). To view this structure, walk over to the very end of the jetty and look directly out to the water, where you may find huge rusted out connected pilings.

 

If you have been here since the beginning of the semester and the start of the blog posts, THANK YOU for sticking with me to view all the sights and sounds of the BTV Waterfront. I’ve really enjoyed exploring this location over the past few months, and I hope you have enjoyed following along!

Best,

Melissa.

 

 

Resources:

History of the Burlington Waterfront. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/CEDO/History

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.