The seminal New York City sewer-gator event came on Feb. 9, 1935, when some East Harlem teens spied an alligator down a storm drain and then lassoed and hauled it up with a clothesline.

The urban myth of the New York City sewer alligator has come to life, in a new Union Square Park statue unveiled last week. The statue depicts a life-sized alligator sitting on the inside of a manhole ...