[Document No. 61.]

[DOCUMENT NO. 61.] City Hall, November 10, 1832. At a meeting of the Joint Committees on Fire and Water, held in the room of the Board of Assistants, it was Resolved, That Colonel De Witt Clinton be requested and authorised to proceed and examine the continuation of the route from Chatterton Hill, near White plains, to Croton River, or such other sources in that vicinity from which he may suppose that an inexhaustible supply of pure and wholesome water for the city of New- York may be obtained; also, his opinion of the best mode of con- ducting the same to the city, and the probable expense as well as the practicability of bringing the water across Harlaem River, and the most suitable point where the same shall be, and the best mode of doing it, and that he be authorised to employ two assistants to aid him in the undertaking. JAMES PALMER, Chairman, CHARLES HENRY HALL, WILLIAM MANDEYILLE, GEORGE W. BRUEN, PETER S. TITUS, DENIS M’CARTHY. At a meeting of the Committee on Fire and Water, Dec, 22 1832, the following report was received from Colonel De Witt Clin- ton, and five hundred copies were directed to be printed. To Alderman James Palmer, Chairman of the Committee on subjects relating to Fire and Water. Sir, I fully concur with your Committee cn the practicability ofobtaining for the city, a copious and inexhaustible supply of pure and wholesome water, at a reasonable expense, when compared with the utility and importance of the object. I therefore submit, in compliance with your wishes, the following report on that sub- ject, embracing all matters connected either with its importance or feasibility. 2. I must however, remark, that in presenting the results of my labours and researches for the consideration of your committee, my opinions are formed under great perplexities and doubts, arising from the contradictory statements, and from the want of proper sur- veys, the intiicacy of the investigations, and from the number of plans that have been in contemplation, and from a wide difference of opinion among our fellow-citizens, on the proper source to procure the water, and the manner and the route by which it ought to be conducted to the city. I should therefore, under all the circum- stances, have declined the confidence of your Committee, if I had not been cheered by a faint hope that my investigations, in some small degree, might assist you in placing the question fully before your constituents, in order to secure their cordial co-operation in a work so essentially connected with their prosperity. 3. It is allowed by all, that the source from which the supply of water ought to be taken, should not only be equal to the present consumption of the city, but in sufficient quantities to provide for a dense and compact population over the whole island. Not that it is proposed at this day to construct works of sufficient capacity for 3 that purpose, but so to arrange the plan as to admit of its extension with the increase of population, revenue and demands of the city. 4. It is evident that if our prosperity, as a nation and a state, should continue uninterrupted, and our country augmenting in wealth, and in population, in the same ratio as during the last fifty years, sixty years will not elapse from this period, before this island will be inhabitedby one million of souls. This remark will not appear exaggerated, when we reflect that in 1697, this city contained but four thousand three hundred and two persons; that Philadel- phia, in 1890, exceeded it fifteen thousand; and at this time, its population is more than two hundred and twenty thousand. That the value of all kinds of property on the island, has increased within the last year, over twenty millions of dollars ; and that it is now assessed atone hundred and forty-five millions of dollars ; and that it is only since 1809, that New-York has been ranked the first com- mercial emporium of the count ry. 5. If this city has been so eminently prosperous in the last few years, what greater augmentation of her wealth and extent may not be reasonably anticipated, from the enterprize of her merchants, the skill of her mariners, the ingenuity of her manufacturers, the industry, patriotism and economy of her citizens ; and also from the facilities, cheapness and despatch which the various avenues of inter communication, natural and artificial, in the different states, have opened to her, and in the completion of new channels of communication ; many of them in progress, and others in contemplation, tending to unite her more permanently, and more advanta- geously, with all parts of our improving and diversified country. 6. With such evidence of an augmentingand multiplying wealth and population in the increase of her ships, her manufactories, and the permane icy and splendour of her public and private dwellings ; and with the most conclusive evidence from her geographical posi- tion, and her proximity to the ocean, and the security of her har- bour, that she must be to this country, what London is to England, It must not only be a matter of surprise and of profoundregret, that she is destitute of a supply of good and wholesome water, and that there should exist any hesitation to grant her power to obtain an element so essentially connected with the prosperity, health and comfort ofher citizens. 7. But why has this important measure been so long delayed by the city 1 Will it be found in the opposition of our fellow-citizens 1 It is believed not, as it is said a large majority of them are in favor of the introduction of water ; but then, why has all former efforts of the city authorities been unsuccessful'? It is not owing to causes over which they have no control; from an extraneous but powerful influence, which not only exerts itself in this wide community, but it our legislative halls ; from the powers and immunities granted to the Manhattan Company ; and from the diversity of opinion among the friends of the measure on the supply of water, the plan of the work, and the expense of the undertaking 1 8. In 1799, a Company was incorporated, styled the New-York Manhattan Water Works, with a view to supply the City with pure and wholesome water. The Capital of the Company is over two millions of dollars; the Charter is perpetual, granting the Company the control over the Streams and Springs on the Island of New- York and the county of West Chester, for the above objects. It must, however, be recollected, that when the Charter was granted, that the population of the City was a little over sixty thousand persons; that the year previous, the Yellow Fever had visited the City with all its horrors and virulence, and the minds of all were filled under their calamities with great dread ; that the Corporation evinced no disposition to embark in the work, and the character of the V* ell Water was generally good. It was also supposed, that good water could be procured from the Bronx, within a distance of twelve miles of the Old City Hall, for $200,' 09, and the supposed consumption of the City was 300,000 gallons. We are now, however, informed by the Water Committee, in their Report of 1831, That the Manhattan Company, “ have been more intent in making money by their banking operations, than accomplishing the avowed objects of their Charter, and have left the City totally unsupplied with Water, which can be called pure and wholesome, and over four-fifths of the paved parts of the City, without any supply what- soever.” With their Report, they give the following Analysis of the Manhattan Water, “ By which it would appear, it is unfit for the use of Man.” 9. One wine quart was slowly evaporated to dryness. The dryness weighed 31-45 grains, equal to 125.80 solid matter in the gallon, consisting 5 Of Muriate ofSoda 45 2!) “ Muriate of Magnesia 40 00 “ Sulphate of Magnesia 6 00 “ Carbonate of Lime, with a little Carbonate of Magnesia. .12 80 “ Sulphate ofLime 4 00 “ Extractive matter combined with water 17 80 Mass in a gallon of water 125 80 10. The works of the Manhattan Company consists of a V ell in Cross-street, twenty-five feet in diameter, and two Steam En- gines of eighteen horse power each ; a Reservoir on Chambers- street, and one or two small wooden Reservoirs. In a Circular, signed by John Lozier, Esq., in 1823, he states, that the Steam En- gines work sixteen hours in the day, and raise in twenty four hours, 691,200 gallons, which is more than one fifth greater than the capacity of the Reservoir; that twenty-five miles of pipes were then down, and the ( ompany supplied two thousand houses, excluding manufactories, &c. He also remarks, “That the water was pump- ed very clear from the Well, and the Reservoirs so constructed with Strainers, that impurities of any kind, cannot pass into the pipe of Conduit.” That the Company had not expended less than $ 1 )0,0 tO in constructing the Works, and that the Well from which the water is obtained, was the Old Tea Water Pump, and was called Tea Water. and was considered the best on the Island. 11. The Manhattan t ompany since 1823, have employed Mr. Dinsbrow to construct a Well, near the corner of Bleecker-street and Broadway; its diameter is eight inches, and its depth is four hundred and forty-two feet.

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