Croton Aqueduct
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The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The island of Manhattan, surrounded by two brackish rivers, had a limited supply of fresh water available on the island, which dwindled as the city grew rapidly after the American Revolutionary War. Before the aqueduct was constructed, residents of New York got water from cisterns, wells, natural springs, and other bodies of water. But rapid population growth in the Nineteenth Century led to the pollution of many water sources. The unsanitary conditions were causing an increase in disease and epidemics like cholera and yellow fever ravaged the city. The rapid expansion in largely wooden buildings also led to many fires destroying large parts of the city.
A new supply of fresh water was needed. Accordingly, a vast engineering project was begun to supply this need, supervised by Chief Engineer John B. Jervis. The Croton River was dammed, and iron pipe encased in brick masonry was laid from the Croton Dam in northern Westchester County to the Harlem River, where it travelled over the High Bridge at 173rd Street, down the west side of Manhattan to a Receiving Reservoir between 79th and 86th streets and Sixth and Seventh Avenues in an area then known as Yorkville. The Receiving Reservoir was a fortress-like building 1,826 feet long and 836 feet wide, and held up to 180 million gallons of water. Thirty-five million gallons flowed into it daily from northern Westchester.
From the Receiving Reservoir water flowed down to the Distributing Reservoir, better known as the Croton Reservoir, a similar fortification located on Fifth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street, where the main branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park are located today. This reservoir was built to resemble ancient Egyptian architecture.
The Aqueduct opened to great fanfare on October 14, 1842. The celebration culminated in a fountain of water that spouted to a height of fifty feet from the beautifully decorated Croton Fountain in City Hall Park. Among those present was then-current President of the United States John Tyler, former presidents John Quincy Adams and Martin van Buren, and Governor of New York William Seward.
The Croton Reservoir continued to supply New York City with drinking water until 1940, when Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Robert Moses ordered it drained and filled to create the Great Lawn in Central Park.
Today, remnants of the aqueduct still exist. Although much of the original masonry has either been removed or covered up by growth, a frequently used walking path can be found where the old aqueduct once stood. The Old Croton Trailway State Historic Park and Trail extends for 26.2 miles in Westchester, providing a trail for all but four segments (in Yonkers, Tarrytown, Scarborough and Ossining) of the trail, including across the lawn of Lyndhurst (house). The Trail enters New York City at Van Cortlandt Park.
The capacity of the Old Croton Aqueduct, large as it was, could not keep up with the growth of New York City, and construction on a New Croton Aqueduct began in 1885, and it went into service in 1890, with triple the capacity of the Old Croton Aqueduct. It supplies ten percent of New York City's water. The old aqueduct is listed as a National Historic Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
[edit] Source
- Koeppel, Gerard T. Water for Gotham: A History, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2000. ISBN 0-691-01139-7.
