Croton Aqueduct

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Old Croton Aqueduct
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Tower No. 16, Irvington, New York, May 2005
Nearest city:	New York City, New York
Built/Founded:	1837
Architect:	John B. Jervis; David Douglass; James Renwick Jr
Designated as NHL:	April 27, 1992 [1]
Added to NRHP:	December 02, 1974[2]
NRHP Reference#:	74001324
Governing body:	State

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 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 obtained water from cisterns, wells, natural springs, and other bodies of water. But rapid population growth in the Nineteenth Century, and encroachment on these areas as Manhattan moved further North of Wall Street, led to the pollution of many local fresh water sources. The unsanitary conditions caused an increase in disease. Epidemics like cholera and yellow fever ravaged the city. The rapid expansion in densely-packed wooden buildings, combined with a lack of an adequate water supply, led to many fires, culminating in the 1835 Great Fire of New York, which destroyed large parts of the city.

Because a new supply of fresh water was needed, a vast engineering project was begun, supervised by Chief Engineer John B. Jervis.^[3] 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 traveled 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, that is now the site of the Great Lawn in Central Park.^[4] 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.

Croton Reservoir 1842

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.

Water started flowing through the aqueduct on June 22, 1842, taking 22 hours for gravity to take the water the 41 miles (66 km) to reach Manhattan.^[3]

The Aqueduct opened to public use with great fanfare on October 14, 1842. The day-long 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 were then-President of the United States John Tyler, former presidents John Quincy Adams and Martin van Buren, and Governor of New York William H. Seward.

"Shutting off the Croton", 1881

About this time the German cockroach attracted attention, and was called "Croton bug" on the mistaken assumption that the aqueduct brought the insects into the homes being connected to the new water supply system.^[5]

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; it went into service in 1890, with triple the capacity of that of the Old Croton Aqueduct. It currently supplies ten percent of New York City's water. 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 been either removed or covered up by growth, a frequently-used walking and bicycling path runs along the easement of the former aqueduct. The Old Croton Trailway State Historic Park and Trail extends for 26.2 miles in Westchester, providing public access along all but four segments (in southern Yonkers, Tarrytown, Scarborough, and Ossining) of the route, including across the lawn of Lyndhurst. Access is easiest where it crosses Albany Post Road, also known as Broadway or Highland Avenue. The Trail enters New York City at Van Cortlandt Park^[3] and runs through the Bronx alongside Aqueduct Avenue and under the southern part of University Avenue.

A portion of the Old Croton Aqueduct, running from the Croton River to Manhattan, was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1992.^[1][6]

Double Arch, Ossining, from a 1907 postcard; upper arch carries the aqueduct

Croton Walk, south of Kingsbridge Road, Bronx

The aqueduct also is listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

The interior of the Old Croton Aqueduct has been explored and documented by photographer/art consultant/graphic designer/illustrator Miru Kim in her Naked City Spleen series and “guerrilla historian” Steve Duncan. Ms. Kim, Mr. Duncan, and other urban explorers were profiled in a July 29, 2007 New York Times article, “Children of Darkness”. The aqueduct also plays an important role in E. L. Doctorows novel The Waterworks (novel).

[edit] References

[edit] Source

• Koeppel, Gerard T. Water for Gotham: A History, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2000. ISBN 0-691-01139-7.

[edit] External links

• Aqueduct.org
• NYC Segment
• Official State Parks site
• Official State Historic Sites site
• 1902encyclopedia.com
• Historic American Buildings Survey photos:
  • 53 photos of plans,
  • 13 photos of Harlem River Crossing,
  • 3 photos of stone quarry railroad bridge in Hastings-on-Hudson,
  • 18 photos of Sing Sing Kill Bridge
  • 7 photos at Mill River Culvert and 5 photos of Mill River Waste Weir at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown,
  • 8 photos of Jewels Brook Culvert,
  • 19 photos of Saw Mill River Culvert,
  • 1 photo of Ventilator #10 at Briarcliff Manor,
  • 1 photo of Ventilator #18 in Irvington,
  • 1 photo of Ventilator #9 in Ossining,
  • 4 photos of Northern Waste Weir,
  • 5 photos of Indian Creek Culvert,
  • 22 photos of New Croton Dam & Reservoir, near Croton-on-Hudson.

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