The bridge shown here is how the Burlington City Bike Path spans one of the most polluted bodies of water in the State of Vermont, the Pine Street Barge Canal.

When I was a kid, I used to daydream about making a mindless action flick, where the grand finale would occur on this bridge. The hero would perform a flying roundhouse on the evil mastermind and knock him over the edge and into the canal. Then the camera would slowly pan to the murky black water, and a skeletal hand would pop out, then slowly sink back to the bottom.

I don't think the Barge Canal really is as polluted as it was in my boyhood musings, but I certainly wouldn't fish there. Often, the water is a little darker than the rest of Lake Champlain, and a rather greenish ooze can be found clinging to the nearby rocks. One time I was crossing the the bridge and I stopped to look over the railing and saw a dead turkey floating underneath, feathers and all. So I was suprised one other time when I was skating down the path and a found a whole bunch of people fishing off of this bridge into the canal. They must've recently moved here and didn't know the story behind this canal. For some reason, though, I didn't advise them that they should fish elsewhere, and years later I still feel kind of bad about it. I'm slightly comforted by the fact that I doubt they caught anything there that they would eat.

Soon, they plan on capping and burying the canal, with the hopes that what's buried there will go away with time. At that point, the bridge will be over sandy dunes instead of murky water, and daydreaming kids will have to construct a new premise for a scene there.