By 1955, Fresh Kills was the largest landfill in the world, serving as the principal landfill for household garbage collected in New York City. The landfill grew to 1,284 acres in 1961. At around this time, the City of New York announced that dumping at Fresh Kills would continue for 15 more years.
Image: DSNY Photo Archive.
The City of New York and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses issued a proposal for development at Fresh Kills. The plan suggests that the area could be used for parks, private residential development, and an industrial zone along the west shore.
Fresh Kills Landfill was established by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and the City of New York. The initial idea was to keep the landfill open for about three years and “fill” the wetlands at the 450-acre site to prepare it for development.
Robert Moses has been called the “master builder” of mid-20th century New York City. He was instrumental in the construction of numerous bridges, highways, and parks, including Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, which was formerly the Ash Dump referred to in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The Fresh Kills site in its natural state was primarily tidal creeks and coastal marsh. The name “Fresh Kills” comes from the Middle Dutch word kille, meaning “riverbed” or “water channel.” In the early 1900s it was a stream and freshwater estuary in the western portion of the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Image: Isle of Meadows, Fresh Kills, 1933, via the Staten Island Museum.