T H E W A T ER SU PPLY OF THE CITY OF N EW Y ORK DE A MEN F WA ER U L P RT T O T S PP Y, GA S A N D ELE CTRI CITY J OSEPH G O ODMAN Co m m issio n er BE 1 DECEM R , 93 7 E RA L D- A H A N R E S S I N C H N T P , . 4 6 0 W 3 4 T r ' Y . H nE N S r E r . , ® 2 7 1 CO NTE NTS HISTORI CAL V WATERS H EDS , RESER OIRS AND AQUEDUCTS CROTON SYSTE M O ld Croton Aqueduct New Croton Aqueduct Croton L ake Pumping Plant B RON"AND BYRA M SYSTE M S CATS K ILL SYST E M Shandaken Tunnel Gilboa Dam Schoharie Reservoir Ashokan Reservoir Kensico Reservoir Hillview Reservoir S ilver L ake Reservoir Catskill Aqueduct 1 City Tunnel N o . n 2 C ity Tun el No . R IDG EW OOD SYST E M QU E E NS SYST E M DEVE LOP M E NT O F ADDITIO NAL S UPPLY FRO M LON G ISLAND RIC H M OND SYST E M U TILI"ATIO N OF PRE SE NT SOURCES OF WATER S UPPLY QUALITY O F WATER DISTRI B UTIO N SYSTE M S HIG H PRESSURE FIRE SERVICE C ONSU M PTIO N AND WAST E OF WAT E R PRIVAT E WATE R C O M PA NI E S S UPPLY T o CO M M U NITIES O U TSID E OF N EW YOR K C ITY WATER REVE NUE FI NAN CIAL AD M INISTRATIVE O FFICERS TABLE OF DISTRIBUTI NG MAINS IN U S E AT E N D OF 1936 TABLE O F STORAGE R E SERVOIRS I N WATE RS H EDS TABLE OF MAIN AQU EDUCTS AND PIP E L I NES TABLE O F DISTRIBUTION RESERVOIRS AND PIPE L I NES TABL E - O F POPULATIO N AND CO NSU M PTION OF WAT E R THE WATER SUP PLY O F THE CITY OF N EW YORK H I STO RI CAL The present C ity of New York is the result O f the consolid a tion in f 1898 o f various communities located in the vicinity O New York Harbor , n oo which are ow included in the boroughs of M anhattan , the Bronx , B r k a nd . lyn , Queens Richmond Their water supplies were developed without regard to the prese nt city limits a nd it was not un til 19 17 that New York was served by a system planned for the city as a whole . f C y The borough O Manhattan , constituting the old it of New York , 1842 u had until , no general water S pply system , although its population at that time amounted to over The early settlers of Manhattan I sland obtained water for domestic purposes from shallow wells which were at first constructed by individual enterpri se . The first public well was dug in f ront O f the old f ort at Bowling Green on or about the year m 1677 . Additional public wells were sunk in the streets f rom time to ti e , as required , the city bearing part of the expense and part having been 1776 assessed on the property benefited . In , when the population reached a reservoir was constructed on the east Side O f B roadway between Pearl and White Streets . Water was pumped from wells sunk near the “ ” C O f famous ollect Pond east the reservoir , and f rom the pond itsel f . and 1 0 was distributed through hollow logs laid in the principal streets . In 80 the Manhattan Company ( now the Manhattan Bank ) su n k a well at Reade a nd C w m on C m entre Streets , pumped ater therefro into a reservoir ha bers Street and distributed it thence through wooden mai n s to a portion of the m community which , at that ti e , consisted of about inhabitants . The ti lied ma ximum amount S pp by this company was gallons a day . ' I n 1830 a tank for fi re p rotection was con structed by the City at 13th Street l e b y n and Broadway . This tank was fil d pumping from a well su k for th r n 12— e pu pose , and the co tents distributed through two l ines of inch cast C iron pipe , one extending down The B owery to hatham Square and the y other through B roadwa and Canal Street . This was the beginning o f the public water works o f New York C ity . The well was 16 feet i n 112 98 diameter and feet in depth . feet of which was excavated through f l . O 6 sol id rock At the bottom the well two ga leries extended , feet by 75 4 2 5 a nd . y feet , one feet , the other feet in length The dail yield of 12 H the well amounted to gallons and was pumped by a P . st ea m o f 4 3 20 engine into a cast iron tank feet diameter and V; feet height , enclosed in an octagonal stone building . C c ec m As the population of the ity in reased , the well waters b a e brackish or polluted with organic matter and i n sufficient in quantity . To e meet ordinary domestic needs , main dependence was upon cisterns suppli d from rain caught upon the roofs ; water secured from a few springs in the e C upp r part of the ity was sold from large casks at two cents a pail . r s O f After ente taining numerou schemes for a suitable source supply , B vra m in among which were Rye Pond , B ronx and Rivers Westchester C er n ounty , Passaic River in New J sey and artesian wells on Manhatta w as o C I sland , it decided to build an aqueduct fr m the roton River to the C to : o e ity , be supplied by one storage reserv ir ; this aqu duct ( known today O ld C 90 as the roton Aqueduct ) , with a capacity of was placed in 1842 service in , its completion having been expedited by the great con fi r i 1 hi t r ag a t on of 83 5 . This was an event of great importance in the s o v o r i F - of olde r New York . The distributi n rese vo rs were at orty second in C O f E - Street ( abandoned in and entral Park , south ighty sixth Street ( abandoned in I n the drought of 1869 - 70 the right was h secured to d raw down six of t e lakes and ponds in the Croton watershed . ’ Boyd s Corners Re servoir was then constructed in 1873 and Middle Branch 1 C 878 . in In due course the old roton aqueduct became inadequate , and in 1883 a commission was f ormed to build a second one fro-m the Croton n o in watershed , as well as additio al storage reserv irs that watershed . The C second aqueduct , known as the New roton Aqueduct , was under con struction from 1885 to 1893 ( though it was. used as ea rly as and 2 5 . has a capacity o f 8 m g d . West Bronx was annexed to the Ol d City of New York in 1874 and 1 f o E ast Bronx in 895 . The system O the New Y rk and Westchester Water C ompany which supplied the villages o f W illia msb ridge and Wakefield and the towns of Westcheste r and Pelham from the Hutchinson River was acquired by the City in 1903 ; the U pper New York City Water C ompany V b 190 5 which supplied the illage of Eastchester was acquired V the city in . A municipal supply f rom the Bronx and Byram Rivers was made avail i 1 5 20 n 89 . able The waters from these watersheds , yielding about were originall y delivered int o a 4 8 - i nch cast iron pipe line over fi fteen miles Kensico “fillia msbrid e long , leadi ng f rom the f ormer Lake to the g reservoir 19 1 m ( aba ndoned in in the B ronx . In 6 this lake was erged in the Ken ico a nd n new s reservoi r , at that poi t the waters from the Bronx and C Byram watersheds became merged with the new atskill supply . C e C The former ity of Brooklyn , lik the former ity of New York , did not develop a public water supply system until its po pulation had reached nearly the use of local wells and cisterns being the only sources the e O f supply prior to 1859 . I n that year city began delivering wat r L n t d collected on the south side of o g Island in o its istribution system , n n pumping this water at the Ridgewood north side pumpi g statio . The L e original works ran e a sterly to the Hempstead Valley . at r they were 6 extended to Massapequa , Long I sland , and the large M ilburn and the Ridgewood South Side pumping stations constructed . For the Borough of Que ens no municipal waterworks o f magnitude 19 13 has been constructed .