Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

THE WATER SUPPLY OF NEW YORK CITY. 99 two feet. The receiving reservoir, situated be- tween 79th and 86th Streets, covered nearly thirty-one acres, and had a capacity of 180,000,000 gallons. The total cost of the aqueduct, including land and interest on water stock, amounted to about £2,500,000. In 1849 the State Legislature created the Croton Aqueduct Department, giving it full charge of the city’s water supply. The new authority at once found itself faced by diffi- culties, caused by constantly recurring leak- ages due to poor material and workmanship, and by continued demands for increased supply. When the aqueduct was constructed, a daily supply of 30,000,000 gallons was con- templated, and deemed ample even for a distant future. This estimate, however, had not sufficiently taken into account two factors —the irrepressible wastefulness of the popula- tion, and the latter’s phenomenal growth. The first step taken to meet the increasing demand was to lay an additional pipe, 7 feet 6J inches in diameter, which brought the capacity of the aqueduct up Second ßo oOO,OOO gallons per day. Pipe laid. . This work was completed m 1861, and was followed by the construction of a large reservoir in Central Park, having a storage capacity of nearly 1,000,000,000 gallons. Then came, in 1864 and 1865, great droughts, which led to the building of another dam, now known as Boyd’s Corner Reservoir, across the west branch of the Croton River. This dam, completed in 1873, is 670 feet long and 57 feet high, and created an additional storage of 2,700,000,000 gallons of water. The relief afforded by these works, however, proved merely temporary. The years 1876 and 1877 were so dry that the city was threat- ened with water famines, with the result that it was decided again to increase the supply and the quantity of water stored up. The scheme drawn up—completed in 1884 —gave an additional daily supply of 15,000,000 gallons. Its leading features were—(1) a dam converting the two Rye Ponds into a lake, with a storage capacity of 1,336,000,000 gallons ; (2) a dam across the Bronx River at Kensico, forming a reservoir with a capa- city of 1,627,000,000 gallons ; (3) a dam across the Byram River, creating a lake of 180,000,000 gallons ; (4) a channel, 3,800 feet long, unit- ing these two sources of supply ; and (5) a pipe line from the Kensico Reservoir to Williamsbridge, the site of a receiving and settling basin. Large and sufficient as it appeared to be when first mooted, this enterprise had scarcely been commenced when it was demonstrated to be absolutely inadequate to the city’s needs. In 1881, Mr. a Newton, then chief engineer, presented a report to the Croton Aqueduct Commission, to the effect that the maximum safe discharge available from the aqueduct— namely, 95,000,000 gallons per day—had been supplied for several years ; that to meet the prospective wants of ever-growing New York recourse must be had to a much larger water- shed ; and that there should be built an entirely new aqueduct capable of bringing to the city at least 200,000,000 gallons a day, even in the driest years. So convincing were these representations that the State Legislature in 1883 accepted the plans prepared by Mr. Newton, and en- trusted the construction of the new water- works to a Board of Aqueduct Commissioners, consisting of the mayor and controller of the city, ex officio, and four members nominated by the former. The new scheme included the construction of a masonry dam across the Croton River, near Quaker Bridge, to form a reservoir with a sur- face of 3,635 acres and a stor- age capacity of 32,000,000,000 . 6 1 J Croton Project. gallons. The reservoir was to impound water collected over an area of 361 square miles,-and ensure a minimum daily supply of 250,000,000 gallons. Leading from