Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
lake tunnel only supplied the needs of the city until 1871. After the
Chicago fire of that year, a new tunnel and pumping station were built for
the west side of the city.
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Most major cities that were growing as rapidly as Chicago did not have
the advantage of such a convenient water source to meet the increasing
demand. More consideration had to be given to distant sources. But these
cities would need to confront two of the same problems Chicago faced in
developing effective city-wide service: skyrocketing capital costs and the
sheer scale and complexity of the engineering task required to develop a
new supply and distribution system.
The Old Croton Aqueduct (1842) is regarded as a sublime engineering
feat, and as a symbol of the conquest of nature in service to the urban pop-
ulation explosion.The Croton Aqueduct project is also an important exam-
ple of changes in the scale and complexity of modern water-supply systems.
Several attempts to solve New York's water problem failed in the early part
of the nineteenth century. The Manhattan Company's willingness to build
an aqueduct from the Bronx River to Manhattan Island never materialized.
Efforts to revive the plan in the 1820s likewise fizzled. In 1835, the fortunes
of the city changed. Citizens, frustrated by the poor state of well water and
frightened by the most recent serious outbreak of cholera, were ready to
support a new plan. In a rare moment of political harmony, the voters, the
state legislature, and the New York Common Council agreed to construct
an aqueduct from the Croton River in Westchester County, running 41
miles to New York.
The Croton project won out over the Bronx project because the source
was much larger—estimated at 40 million gallons per day—and could be
delivered to the city without pumps. Even with the savings in the con-
struction and maintenance of such machinery, the aqueduct cost approxi-
mately $9 million-$10 million.
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The task of building the aqueduct was first
entrusted to Major David Bates Douglass. Douglass, however, lacked expe-
rience with large public works, especially one that required building a vari-
ety of structures: a dam, an enclosed masonry conduit, bridges and
embankments, and a huge reservoir. A good surveyor, he had consulted on
railroad and canal projects, and taught civil engineering at West Point and
New York University, but he had never carried out such a large project. In
addition, he had a major personality clash with the Chairman of the Water
Commissioners, Stephen Allen. Douglass was fired in October of 1836; at
least he had routed most of the aqueduct before his departure.
