Alligators In the Sewers (Chase Hernandez)

Alligators in the Sewers

**Legend Summery**

The Alligators in the swears legend that hails from New York is pretty self-explanatory. There are many people who still believe in this legend and unlike many others they have pretty good reason to think that way. For over a century there have been sightings and actual alligators found. Many people from young boys killing a gator with shovels to barge captains lassoing 125lb alligators. This really helped bring the legend to life and made it spread like wildfire. Another thing to mention is that since the 1930’s and even earlier people have bought and advertised alligators all over New York. Most of the alligators throughout New Yorks rich history are most and if not, all abandoned pets that were bought as babies and released when they grow up or outgrow their 800sq ft apartments. Which closer to now present day we have legends of alligators in the sewers ready in eat anyone crazy enough to adventure under and give sewer workers a horrible time. The seminal New York City sewer-gator event came on Feb. 9, 1935, when some East Harlem teens spied an alligator down a storm drain and then lassoed and hauled it up with a clothesline. After the reptile — roughly eight feet long and 125 pounds — snapped at them, they killed it with their shovels. (Kilgannon)

**Legend History**

The beginning of this legend starts way back over a century ago in 1907 only 12 miles away from New Jersey. This was the first recorded sighting and first real incident between an alligator and human. Which the unlucky man just so happened to be a sewer worker and to top it all off he found the alligator in the swears. This news was spread like the black plague in Europe and with fear factor attached to it. Many people started to fear the alligators in the swears and the storms drains. A couple of the reasons so many people still believe in the legend and have still lived so long is mainly due to the constant instances of actual alligator sightings and captures. However, most and if not all alligators in New York were pets of people. They even had ads in papers in the 1930’s for alligator babies for sale and apparently many people bought and raised them and after they have outgrown their cute phase, they are flushed down toilets or released into storm drains. So as people do this of course the people to find these abandoned pets are swear workers and add fuel to this legend. The seminal New York City sewer-gator event came on Feb. 9, 1935, when some East Harlem teens spied an alligator down a storm drain and then lassoed and hauled it up with a clothesline. “After the reptile — roughly eight feet long and 125 pounds — snapped at them, they killed it with their shovels.” (Kilgannon) This is one of the most prominent events that almost everyone knowns, but they used this story to verify that legend is real, and they still lurk under the city. Thats one of the beautiful qualities of this legend is how it managed to last for so long because of actual sightings and people literally pulling alligators out of the sewer and people spreading the word.  “Then in 1937, a barge captain pulled a 4-foot, 8-inch alligator out of the East River by lassoing the animal around its “wildly waving forefeet,” reported The New York Herald Tribune.” (Kilgannon) This is another event where a captain pulled out a almost a 5 foot alligator of the East River with its supposedly wildly waving forefeet but there have been multiple reports and sightings sometimes theses sightings prompted hunts for these alligators like when 2 boys found a 3-foot alligator and showed it to police and then said there were many more in the river. This started a police expedition to hunt the alligators in the Bronx River. However, it quickly found out there weren’t any and the gator they found was just a pet. However just the movement of the police moving and giving attention to this situation fueled this legend to that absolute most at the time.

**Adaptations:**

Over the course of a century there haven’t been any major developments or adaptations of the legend of alligators in the sewers. The closest thing to an adaptation was the alligators exaggerated size as time moved on. People started to say there were many small alligators swimming through under the city and as the legend naturally grew it quickly turned into giant man-eating gators for any unlucky enough to stumble upon them.

**Analysis of Adaptations**

The way the adaptation has evolved over time seems very natural as far as legends go. Hearing over a long time that there are alligators under the city is frightening but over time as nothing happens to the general population minds get eased. Then as people talk about the legend it gets repetitive, so people put their own spin on it. For example, the alligators that were thought to be relatively small are now 6 foot long and can tear your limb from limb. Then that gets old and people start to say that they have gotten even bigger and can even eat people whole. To put a more unique spin on the whole New York alligators in the sewer. What if they had adopted a venomous bite due to the constant swimming in sewer water so if anyone was unfortunate enough to get bitten by one, they would still end up falling victim to the venom. Or another adaptation where they stay small eating rats and other prey in the sewers but can crawl through the pipes in a building and eventually find their way into homes and attacking people in their own homes.