The Garbage That Built New York: A Walk Through NYC’s Trash & Rat History

New York City wasn’t just built on ambition — it was built on trash. While the city is famous for its race to the skies, its growth has always depended on what was buried or swept up below. From survival to scandal to unexpected innovation, it’s time to explore the city’s overlooked ecosystem of garbage and vermin — one that shares a story just as compelling as the skyline above.

Join New York Adventure Club as we hit the streets of Lower Manhattan to uncover how garbage, rats, and sanitation crises left their mark — not just on the city's physical landscape, but also its public health systems and political history.

Led by Suzanne Reisman — a NYC licensed tour guide, author of Off the Beaten Subway Track, and graduate of both the NYC Department of Health’s Rat Academy and Department of Sanitation’s Trash Academy — our unique experience will include:

• A walk along Wall Street to examine its origins as a colonial garbage dump and its troubling role in early New York history
• A stroll through the South Street Seaport area exploring landfill expansion, the former Fulton Fish Market, and notorious rat lore
• A visit to DeLury Square and surrounding alleys to unpack the 1968 sanitation strike, union power, and NYC’s garbage politics
• An exploration of Ann Street and Theatre Alley highlighting real rat incidents, rat reproduction, and why we can't kill our way out of the rat problem
• An overview of how modern sanitation systems evolved in response to garbage overload, vermin outbreaks, and civic pressure

If we're lucky, we'll see some rats in action...from a distance!

See you there!

*Please bring a water bottle and comfortable pair of shoes as we’ll be doing a lot of walking!

**This experience concludes at City Hall Park

About Suzanne

Suzanne Reisman specializes in unique, unusual tours of New York City. If you want to delve into the New York City that's off the beaten (subway) track, she literally wrote the book about it — Off the Beaten Subway Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions. A proudly foul-mouthed flâneuse who loves exploring the city, Suzanne brings humor, curiosity, and 30+ years of lived experience in her adopted hometown to every tour.

She is a NYC licensed tour guide, a graduate of the NYC Department of Health’s Rat Academy and the Sanitation Foundation’s Trash Academy, and a member of the NYC Rat Pack (New York’s elite squad of dedicated anti-rat activists). She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School, a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University, and a BA from NYU. Suzanne currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, her teddy bear, and the ghost of her 13 lb. pet rabbit — and still insists on calling soda “pop” and sneakers “gym shoes.”

Disclaimer

Event takes place rain or shine.

By attending a New York Adventure Club experience, you accept our terms of service.

Categories: In-Person, Neighborhood Tours