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Time Line 1600S - The Dutch Founded New York City, Settling On The Southern Tip of Manhattan. For The Next 175

The document outlines the history and development of New York City's water supply system from the 1600s to present day. It starts with the Dutch using local wells and ponds in the 1600s. By the late 1820s, the city realized it needed a cleaner, more abundant water source, so it built an aqueduct system bringing water from the Croton River, which was completed in 1842. Continued population growth led to further expansions, including systems drawing from the Catskill Mountains and Delaware River watersheds. Today the three systems provide over 550 billion gallons of water daily from reservoirs over 100 miles from the city.

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Vikesh Ravichandren
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63 views3 pages

Time Line 1600S - The Dutch Founded New York City, Settling On The Southern Tip of Manhattan. For The Next 175

The document outlines the history and development of New York City's water supply system from the 1600s to present day. It starts with the Dutch using local wells and ponds in the 1600s. By the late 1820s, the city realized it needed a cleaner, more abundant water source, so it built an aqueduct system bringing water from the Croton River, which was completed in 1842. Continued population growth led to further expansions, including systems drawing from the Catskill Mountains and Delaware River watersheds. Today the three systems provide over 550 billion gallons of water daily from reservoirs over 100 miles from the city.

Uploaded by

Vikesh Ravichandren
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TIME LINE

1600S -the Dutch founded New York City, settling on the southern tip of Manhattan. For the next 175
years, water came from wells, ponds and springs within the City. The first main source was the Kalch-
Hook, or Collect Pond, a 48-acre springfed pond near Franklin and Pearl Streets in lower Manhattan,
from which people collected water and brought it to their homes. There were also a few private wells.

In 1667, shortly after the British seized New York from the Dutch, the first public well was dug in front of
the old fort at Bowling Green, located near Battery Park. The well used a pump — the first in the City’s
history — to bring the water from underground.

A Water Crisis

The inadequate quantity and poor quality of the water supply created catastrophic problems. Fires
burned out of control, including one in 1776 that destroyed a quarter of the City’s buildings. Disease also
ravaged the population. In 1832, contaminated water contributed to a cholera epidemic that killed 3,500
people.

In 1799, the State Legislature gave the newly formed Manhattan Company the exclusive right to supply
water to New York City. The company, headed by Aaron Burr, ignored plans to bring water from outside
of Manhattan, and sunk more wells at the Collect Pond. The water was stored in a new reservoir at
Chambers Street and was distributed through wooden pipes. The Manhattan Company used its surplus
funds to start a bank, known today as Chase Manhattan. The Company, which was more interested in
running a bank than a water supply system, did a poor job of delivering water to the City.

Building a New Water Supply System

By the late 1820s, City leaders realized they had to develop a cleaner and more abundant source of
water. After exploring alternatives, the City decided to take water from the Croton River, in what is now
Westchester County. The development of the City’s first successful public water supply system was a
major engineering undertaking. The system was constructed by almost 4,000 immigrants, who began
work in 1837. It included the Old Croton Dam, which was built six miles above the junction of the Croton
and Hudson Rivers. The dam created a lake five miles long that covered about 400 acres and was able to
hold 660 million gallons of water. Another major component was the Old Croton Aqueduct, built to carry
water 41 miles from the Croton River to a reservoir at what is now the Great Lawn in Central Park. From
there the water traveled to the Murray Hill Distributing Reservoir, today the site of the New York Public
Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Croton water flowed through the aqueduct, largely by gravity, and arrived in the City on July 4, 1842.
New Yorkers celebrated with spectacular fountain displays and a parade. The Croton system provided
water to a population that continued to grow. By the 1880s, the City decided to enlarge the Croton
system with a new dam and aqueduct and a larger watershed. The Old Croton Dam was submerged in
the reservoir created by the New Croton Dam. In 1885, construction began on the New Croton
Aqueduct, an underground tunnel almost three times the size of the old aqueduct.

Clean Water Leads to Growth

The increased supply of clean water allowed population to swell and the City expanded even further. In
turn, the installation of sewers, flush toilets and household faucets led to greater water use — and
waste. The merger of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island with Manhattan and the Bronx into one city in
1898 added to the demand for water.

By the turn of the century, City leaders were again forced to expand the water supply. New York State
passed legislation that created the New York City Board of Water Supply. It allowed the City to purchase
watershed land in the Catskill Mountains and to create new reservoirs by damming streams and rivers.
The residents of several villages were moved and the towns flooded to create reservoirs. In this way, the
City developed the Catskill and Delaware reservoir systems, which were completed in 1927 and 1965,
respectively.

Our Modern Water Supply System

The watersheds of the three systems cover an area of almost 2,000 square miles, approximately the size
of the State of Delaware. The reservoirs combined have a storage capacity of 550 billion gallons. The
water flows to New York City through aqueducts, and 97 percent reaches homes and businesses through
gravity alone; only 3 percent must be pumped to its final destination. Chlorine is added to the water to
kill bacteria, and fluoride is added to help prevent tooth decay.

Located in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties, the Croton system has 12 reservoirs and 3
controlled lakes. The largest, the New Croton Reservoir, can hold 19 billion gallons of water. The system
normally supplies 10 percent of the City’s drinking water, but can supply more when there is a drought in
the watersheds farther upstate.

The Catskill system includes 2 reservoirs and supplies up to 40 percent of the City’s daily needs. The
Catskill watershed is located in parts of Greene, Ulster and Schoharie Counties, about 100 miles north of
New York City and 35 miles west of the Hudson River.
The Delaware system, in parts of Delaware, Ulster and Sullivan Counties southwest of the Catskill
watershed, includes 4 reservoirs which provide 50 percent of the City’s daily water needs. The largest is
the Pepacton, which can hold over 140 billion gallons of water — more than the entire capacity of the
Croton system

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