Originally they were derived from coal-tar, the black viscous waste product left over from distilling coal for gas.

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Located next to the convention center, the stadium would have doubled the mass and length of the huge bunker against the river already established by that "lump of black coal" -- as essayist Phillip Lopate described its dark bulk in his literary trip around the edges of Manhattan -- cutting off views and access with nearly a mile of hulking wall.

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Two summers ago, a truckload of Beijing municipal workers turned up in my neighborhood and began unspooling heavy-duty black power lines, which they attached to our houses, in preparation for a campaign to replace coal-burning furnaces with electric radiators.

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