Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Bentley's Miscellany, 1851, Vol. 30
This great work' was opened, with appropriate ceremonies, and a splendid civic festival, on the 14th of October, 1842. The British consul, in accepting the invitation of the Common Council, to assist at this festival, Justly remarked, Tyrants have left monuments which call for admiration, but no similar work of a free people, for magnitude and utility, equals this great enterprise. Public feeling was $3 warm on this occasion. Of the procession of the trades, fire, w was three hours passing a given point, an enthusiastic citizen declared in print, that he watched and scrutinized it closel and could discover neither a drunkard nor a fool from first tolast. T might be a dificult matter to decide on the moral and intellectual condition of the indi viduals composing such a procession, but we may concedethat drunkards and fools are not the persons most likely to join in rejoicing for the introduction of pure water without stint or measure.
The Great Aqueduct is forty-one miles in length, commencing with a dam across the Croton river, six miles above its month. This rm'ses the water one hundred and sixty-six feet above tide level, forming a lake or reservoir of four hundred acres in extent. Containing five hundred million gallons, above the level that would allow the A ueduct to dis charge thirty-five million gallons per day. From the roton Dam to Harlem River, something less than thirty-three miles, the Aqueduct is an uninterrupted conduit of h draulio masonry, of stone and brick; the greatest interior width, seven t five inches; the greatest height, eight feet five inches; the floor an inverted arch. The commissioners and chief engineers passed through its whole length on foot, as soon as it was completed; and, when the water was admitted, traversed it again in a boat built for the purpose. It crosses the Harlem River by a bridge of stone, fourteen hundred and fifiy feet long, and one hundred and fourteen feet above high-water mark. At the Receiving Reservoir forty miles from the Dam, the masonry gives place to iron pipes, through which the water is conveyed two miles further, to the distributing reser voir, from which point it runs, by means of several hundred miles of pipes, to every corner of the city. On the line of the Aqueduct are one hundred and fourteen culverts, and sixteen tunnels, and ventilators occur at the distance of one mile apart throughout the route. The Receiving Reservoir covers thirty-five acres, and contains one hundred and fifty million imperial gallons. The Distributing Reservoir has walls forty-nine feet in height, and contains twenty million gallons. The supply to each citizen is at resent almost unlimited, and afi'ordedat a very moderate annual rate. Pthe managers complain to the Common Council of the enormous waste during the summer, when sixty im perial gallons each twenty-four hours to every inhabitant, are delivered. But even at this enormous rate the uantity is ample, and it can be in creased at will by new reservoirs. No decent house is now constructed without a bath, an advantage to the health and comfort of the city, hardly to be overrated. Fountains adorn almost all the public places of any importance, and although in few instances as yet dignified by sculpture, these tastes and glimpses of Nature are in themselves invalu able, ofi'ering to the people at large a continual reminder of Mauty. Tranquillity, and innocent pleasure in the open air. There remains yet to be added those public vats for the use of poor women in washing, thatma befonndtnsoman Europeantowns.
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