2018 update: My comic about Bottle Beach eventually became part of my book Tenements, Towers & Trash, and you can hear me talk about in on the New Yorker Radio Hour.
These round bottom bottles were made in the mid 1800’s and up. It’s fairly rare to find something like this still intact at Bottle Beach.
Many bottles have been strung up on a downed tree at the shoreline over the years. Hurricane Sandy knocked a lot of them off, but a few remain.
Horse bones I shouldn’t have brought home because gross, and an old metal circus toy I shouldn’t touch because it’s probably full of lead.
Not sure what this bottle held, but a few online sources guess it was photo developing chemicals.
Where the beach meets the landfill that connects to Floyd Bennett Field.
Cleaner part of where the beach ends and the landfill begins. This is a separate landfill from the underwater one that produces all the bottles.
Some turn of the century shoes.
Urine specimen bottle amongst regular ol’ jam jars.
Various stages of barnacle growth.
I don’t really know what this is but I hate it!!
You can see more photos on my Bottle Beach at Dead Horse Bay Flickr set. Read all of my NYC history comics at the New Yorker.
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