"From Beautiful Pond To A Ghetto": Tom Fontana's Walking Tour Of Gritty Five Points
By Sponsor in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 30, 2012 5:00PM
![Collect Pond in 1798 \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(Image via \<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Collect_Pond-Bayard_Mount-NYC.jpg\"\>Wiki Commons\<\/a\>)\<\/span\>\<br/\> \<br/\>\<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_collectpond.jpeg)
![Tom Fontana walks around what used to be Five Points \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(BBC America)\<\/span\>\<br/\> \<br/\>\<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012-07_tomfontana.jpeg)
![Five Points, as re-created in \<em\>Copper\<\/em\> \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(BBC America)\<\/span\>\<br\>\<br/\>\<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<br/\>\<br\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_copperfivep.jpeg)
![Mulberry Bend, in 1898 \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(Jacob Riis, Museum of the City of New York)\<\/span\>\<br/\>\<br/\> \<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<br/\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_mulberrybend.jpeg)
![Five Points, as re-created in \<em\>Copper\<\/em\>\<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(BBC America)\<\/span\>\<br/\>\<br/\>\<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<br/\>\<br\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_copperpara.jpeg)
![Formerly Five Points: Canal Street in Chinatown \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(Photograph by \<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattron/6650367743/\"\>Mattron on Flickr\<\/a\>)\<\/span\>\<br\>\<br\>\<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<br/\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_mottbay.jpeg)
![Formerly Five Points: Worth and Baxter Street today \<span class=\"photo_caption\"\>(Photograph by \<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/331441085/\"\>wallyg on Flickr\<\/a\>)\<\/span\>\<br/\>\<br/\> \<iframe width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/5C1WfSzOpm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\>\<\/iframe\>\<\/i\>\<img src=\"http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=ade2011-ca&at=view&rt=banner&st=image&ca=copper&cr=site&pc=watcheffect&ce=siteservedtag&rnd=[timestamp]\" /\>](http://chicagoist.com/upload/2012/07/2012_07_worthbax.jpeg)
Known for groundbreaking television like Homicide: Life On The Streets and OZ, acclaimed writer-producer Tom Fontana has, with Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson, now developed a crime show about his own hometown, New York City. Of course, Fontana's and Levinson's approach in BBC America's COPPER is to look at the Big Apple in the real bad old days—the 1860s, when it was a given that crooks ran wild and the government was corrupt—how things change.
Fontana recently looked around present-day lower Manhattan to share key locations for COPPER. Did you realize that much of Chinatown was built over a landfilled pond? The pond, Collect Pond, became so polluted from tanning factories' toxic runoff that city officials realized they had to cover it over. And guess who got to live there—all the immigrants!
New York City's notorious 19th century underbelly gets reexamined in BBC America's COPPER, a gripping new cop-drama series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana. Click through to see how Five Points, the center of the criminal world, looked back then—and how it looks now—as well as the exclusive COPPER trailer. COPPER premieres Sunday, August 19th at 10/9c only on BBC America.