The Narrows Project aims to showcase Troy’s hidden wonders
By: Matt Fiebke
Staff Writer
The plans for the Narrows Cascade Trail Project were announced last Thursday at the BTC auditorium by the project’s leader John E Johanson. The project hopes to help make Troy’s historic waterfalls and woodlands accessible.
“A lot of the most beautiful parts of Troy are really hard to get to from most of the places where people actually live, and that’s one of the things we’re trying to solve with The Narrows Project. We want to connect all these places together and really open up spaces that are right now kind of obscure, people don’t really know about, or can’t get to as easily,” Johanson said.
The Narrows Cascade Project would be a trail that goes past Troy’s most prominent landmarks. It would weave through the neglected backwoods and overgrown areas turning them into a park for Troy’s residents, while also paying respect to the city’s history.
“Though it it might just look like woods, there’s a lot of stories, and lives, and a lot of drama that has unfolded in these locations,” Johanson said.
At one point, Johanson presented a photo of a gas station to the audience. “What strikes me is not what we see in it, like the gas station, but what’s actually behind it”. He continued, “[there is a] waterfall that actually exists right behind it.”
The trailhead would start at the Menands bridge, travel through woods and prospect park, and to downtown. “What it does is connect a lot of these neighborhoods, because Hudson Valley here would be connected to it.”
The Narrows project has created a partnership with the City of Troy, The Post Contemporary non-profit art organization, the Rensselaer Land Trust. The Project seeks to connect areas of Troy, including HVCC, by way of these backwood areas.
“The way we move through the city is on these streets, and we’re really blocked from seeing behind it by these gas stations and advertising, and all this stuff from our culture that’s sort of accumulated. The Narrows is about getting off those paths, and getting into the woods and actually seeing the woods, seeing the history,” Johanson said.
The effort to clean up Troy’s waterfalls is just one in a string of projects revitalizing the City. Many new business have found success, along with burgeoning artistic and college communities.
On Troy’s urbanization Johanson noted, “A hundred years from now, we’ll be in the same position. People will be looking back and sort of making assumptions about how we lived. It’s kind of like time goes on and we privilege ourselves to look back” He continued, “through The Narrows, we’re kind of encouraging you to look at the world with a little more curiosity and exploration.”