Providence hasn’t fared too badly the past two days. Despite the shrill “flash flood warning” that blared from my phone at 2:35am, the remnants of Hurricane Ida did not unload on us the way it has elsewhere. The scope of this disaster (and all the others) will take months to assess . . . if the earth has that long. Boy, was Al Gore ever right — we should start listening to that guy.
Seen here is the Moshassuck River moving smartly along this morning behind Charles Landing, an apartment complex on Charles Street. According to the Friends of the Moshassuck,
The Narragansett Indians gave the river its name, Mooshausick, meaning the river where moose watered.
The Moshassuck became the final stretch of the old Blackstone Canal, the 19th-century waterway that linked Worcester to Providence (and to Narragansett Bay). The canal closed after only twenty years in use when the new railroad put it out of business. According to the National Park Service,
Construction of the Blackstone Canal finally began in 1825. It was dug with shovels, pickaxes, and spades. Irish immigrants made up most of the workforce.
Damn those immigrants, always taking the good jobs.
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