USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 5
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In 1916 the epidemic of infantile paralysis was met by a stringently enforced quarantine. The result was that there were but seventeen cases in Waterbury. In October of that year, however, there was a smallpox epidemic to contend with. So drastic were the precautions that there has in 1917 been no sign of a recurrence.
In 1917 the Commissioners of the Board of Health officials are as follows : Board members, Dr. J. D. Freney, T. F. Carmody, Charles A. Babin, Dr. W. L. Barber, Sr., George Hargraves ; health officer, Dr. T. J. Kilmartin; sanitary inspector, Edward F. Callahan; milk and food inspector, Dr. Peter F. Keeley ; bacteriologist, Dr. T. F. Healey ; tenement house inspector, Thomas B. Moran; superintendent of garbage collection, John P. Caffery; medical inspectors of schools, Dr. J. W. Fruin, Dr. C. A. Monagan ; school nurses, Miss Mary Monagan, Mrs. Annie Grady ; clerk and secretary to health department, Lucy J. Reid.
The latter was appointed the first clerk of the health department in 1911 and has since held that position.
THE BOARD OF CHARITIES
The work of the Board of Charities is devoted largely to the care of the city's poor. The city almshouse, which, in 1902, was given the name of Brookside, now houses about one hundred and fifty inmates, and this has been its average for nearly two decades. It was built in 1892, and in the past twenty-five years many improvements have been made, the exterior of the building remaining about as it was at the beginning of this quarter century, 1893.
The average of tubercular patients sent by the board to the Meriden State Sanitarium in the past five years has been about fifty; to the Shelton State Sanitarium, about five ; to the Hartford State Sanitarium, eight, and to the Nor- wich State Sanitarium, two.
CHAPTER III
THE CITY'S PHYSICAL PROBLEMS AND CHANGES
ITS SITE NOT IDEAL-RECONSTRUCTION OF LEADING THOROUGHFARES-ITS NEW BRIDGES-THE WATER SYSTEM AND THE BUILDING OF ITS GREAT CHAIN OF RESER- VOIRS-THE SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANT NOT YET COMPLETED-LONG LITIGATION WITH FACTORY OWNERS-SEWER CONSTRUCTION OF A QUARTER CENTURY-THE NAUGATUCK RIVER CONSERVATION PLAN-THE WATERBURY-DERBY BARGE CANAL PROJECT.
Rapid growth in population and a site remarkable for its natural perversities have combined to make the ordering of Waterbury's physical growth a cluster of complex and difficult problems. The growth in population has been far greater than the average for New England cities, and has been equalled by few commu- nities in the older states.
With all due respect to the forefathers who founded and developed Waterbury, it must be conceded that they did not select an eligible site for a large industrial city. When the reasonably level land which formed the river valley was occupied, and the city began to expand in all directions, it was found that all future growth must be uphill. The hills were many, steep and rocky, the ground was obdurate. Builders have discovered that it may cost nearly as much to blast out a cellar as to build a small house, while on the other hand a pocket of fine building sand, a commodity which is as good as gold in Waterbury, may be unearthed and sold for enough to pay for excavation. Most streets and many building sites call for expensive grading and sometimes there is filling to be given away and at other points it brings a premium.
On account of the hilly contours and gravelly soil, highways are expensive to build and maintain and much permanent paving is needed, more in fact than the city has been able to provide. Water and gas mains and sewer lines must frequently be laid for considerable distances through rock.
The approaches to the city running through narrow valleys or over consid- erable hills are difficult. When the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad double-tracked the Naugatuck division through Waterbury in 1905-7, it was necessary to move or divert the Naugatuck River in places to find room for a reasonably straight double track.
The supply of water, of which large quantities are necessary in brass manu- facture for the washing of brass, is none too large for the future development of the typical industry, and most important of all, the need for potable water to maintain the constantly growing population in health and comfort, renders it necessary to go farther afield. The central portion of Connecticut is so largely urban that towns and cities are competing for available water supplies and choice is no longer free. Pure water must be had and it is difficult to secure it and expensive to deliver it.
The newest and most perplexing problem, because still only partially settled, is the disposal of waste matter, in which the rights of the down-stream commu- nities and property holders are involved, and the question of sewage disposal,
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which has been vexing us for twenty years, still lacks its permanent solution. This added anxiety, peculiar to an inland city with many neighbors, seems an unjust addition to the physical difficulties with which Waterbury has so bravely and successfully contended. The need of constant planning ahead with careful foresight has been imperative because the growth of the city would not wait for time to solve its problems. A community which grows from 28,000 people in 1890, to 45,000 in 1900, and 73,000 in 1910, and in 1917 knows it has 100,000 and sees every prospect of doubling in size in the next twenty years, must needs take time by the forelock and especially when it has more than ordinary natural diffi- culties to master.
For these reasons the physical development of Waterbury has been largely an engineering problem and it has been engineering of a most interesting kind. It has been grappled with boldly and we have been fortunate in having at our command men who with clear eyes and a faith in the city's future have done enduring work wisely and economically so that the community and its industries are not weighted down with hopelessly large obligations as a permanent mortgage upon the future.
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF LEADING THOROUGHFARES
Waterbury is principally indebted for the present satisfactory condition of its physical equipment, and its consequent opportunities for further progress, to the life work of one man, Robert A. Cairns, its city engineer, and to the co-opera- tion and loyal backing which he has had from a long line of mayors and boards of aldermen. It is due to the official co-operation which he has enjoyed that there is no city department in which the evidences of growth for the past quarter century are so clear as in that of the city engineer.
During this period the changes have been not alone in the mere housing of its continually growing population and in the increase of its business buildings, but far more notably in giving to Waterbury the physical aspect of a great municipality.
It is especially in the reconstruction of its leading thoroughfares that history has been made in this quarter century.
The widening of Grand Street in 1909 and the widening of Meadow Street during the same year, eliminating South Willow and Cedar streets, was a particu- larly important betterment. This means that Meadow Street now runs continu- ously from West Main to South Main streets, and that there is a fine approach to the City Hall, Library and Union Station. The Liberty Street opening shortly afterwards gave a 60-foot street between Bank and Benedict streets. The Jeffer- son Street extension to South Elm Street in 1911 was a splendid improvement for that section.
The opening of Robbins Street in 1907 was another valuable improvement in the highway system of the city.
In 1914 Thomaston Avenue was laid out with a uniform width of fifty feet to Waterville. In that work the railroad agreed to re-locate the track of the Naugatuck division and the city lowered by six feet for a length of 1,000 feet a 36-inch water main.
In 1914 also Watertown Avenue from Steele's Brook bridge to the Driving Park was built by the state, the first piece of concrete highway in Waterbury.
During 1918, or as soon as the courts have settled on damages, Leavenworth Street is to be widened to fifty feet between Grand and West Main streets.
The most important improvement of this character now begun is that on Huntington Avenue. A street fifty feet wide from Thomaston Avenue to
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Watertown Avenue has been laid out. This, when completed, will eliminate a. detour of three miles to a section that has been growing phenomenally along manufacturing and residential lines. There will be three bridges in this new street. An expensive and much-needed grade crossing is to be provided for. It is also the purpose of the city to locate the West Main Street steel bridge over the Naugatuck River. Steele's Brook bridge will necessarily be raised.
There are today approximately twenty miles of permanently paved streets in Waterbury. This reckoning includes all of those constructed of granite, vitrified brick, bitulithic asphalt and asphalt, but not macadamized streets.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW BRIDGES
Side by side with highway construction goes the providing of bridges and Waterbury is necessarily a city of many bridges. The winding Naugatuck River with its numerous tributaries would set us apart from our neighbors if it were not for the building of bridges, large and small. This work has been particularly active during the last ten years.
In 1905 the city constructed Steele's Brook bridge. This is a reinforced con- crete girder bridge, sixty feet wide, with two 20-foot spans, the axis of the bridge being at an angle of fifty-five degrees. This gave a 60-foot street where it had been only eighteen.
The Grandview Avenue bridge over Robbins Street, built in 1907, is a rein- forced concrete girder bridge with a 40-foot span. It carries across an important highway what will eventually become a noble residential boulevard.
In 1907 the Liberty Street bridge was built. This is a concrete arch bridge, 50-foot span, with a width of forty feet. It was necessary to go thirty-one feet below the street surface to secure a foundation.
On September 9, 1916, the Bank Street bridge was opened, the people of Brooklyn celebrating the event. This, the finest bridge in the city and erected at a cost of $100,000, is a three-span masonry arch bridge, 4912 feet between para- pets. The old steel bridge over Bank Street was repaired, painted, fitted out with many new parts, and was re-erected over the Naugatuck River at Freight Street in 1915, giving the Brooklyn district another much needed outlet.
The four-track viaduct built by the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co. through the central part of the city with its abolition of grade crossings is a permanent guar- antee against accidents.
During the past few years there have also been built the Hancock Brook bridge at Waterville, fifty feet wide, with two spans of twenty-two feet each, and a To-foot rustic bridge, fifty feet long, built over Riverside.
A 50-foot girder bridge over the Mad River at Hamilton Avenue is now under way. Plans are also complete for a new West Main Street bridge. which is to be a three-span masonry arch bridge.
THE GROWTH OF THE WATER SYSTEM
Probably the most important element of the municipal plant is the water supply system, the magnitude of which is not generally realized because while its product is daily before the public eye, its parts are concealed or scattered in remote districts. Yet its development during the last twenty-five years has been so remarkable as to bespeak public attention.
It is a far cry from the spring at Willow and Grove Streets that 117 years ago supplied Waterbury's leading families with water, to the magnificent system
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THE WIGWAM DAM AND RESERVOIR OF WATERBURY'S MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEM
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, CARRYING BANK STREET OVER THE NAUGATUCK RIVER
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
which now fills the needs of a city of 100,000 population. Up to the year 1893 the city's water supply was drawn from the reservoirs which collected the drainage of about one square mile and had a storage capacity of 180,000,000 gallons.
Today, after the extensions and growth of a quarter century, the supply is as follows :
Gallons
East Mountain Reservoirs
I37,000,000
Wigwam Reservoirs
730,000,000
Morris Reservoirs
2,000,000,000
2,867,000,000
Prospective Pitch Brook Reservoir.
1,440,220,000
Total available in 1919 4,307,220,000
It was in 1893 that City Engineer Robert A. Cairns, far-seeing and almost prophetic as to the growth of Waterbury, urged the adoption of new plans on a far larger scale than had ever before been contemplated. It was with some trepi- dation that the authority was finally granted and the work of giving Waterbury an adequate water supply was begun, all plans and supervision being in charge of Mr. Cairns.
The territory selected for the first gathering ground,-the Wigwam dam and reservoir,-lies to the northwest of the city among the Litchfield Hills, at a distance of about ten miles. It has an area of eighteen square miles, drained by the West Branch of the Naugatuck River.
A careful investigation showed a population of less than twenty-five persons per square mile of watershed. Probably two-thirds of the region is wooded, farming being carried on to a less extent than was the case fifty years ago. The main stream has an average inclination of about sixty feet per mile, and flows through a valley having a narrow floor and very steep side hills. Tributaries to the main stream have such inclinations as to make it out of the question to place storage reservoirs on them. Owing to these unfavorable conditions it was found advisable to limit the provision of storage to such an amount as would insure a safe uniform yield in dry seasons of 600,000 gallons a day per square mile of net land surface, or a total average daily yield of 10,500,000 gallons.
Construction was begun in the spring of 1893. It included excavation for and construction of that part of the masonry dam below the bed of the brook, as well as much stripping of the basin and grading portions of the pipe line. In the winter of 1893-4 contracts were let for all work necessary to complete the reservoir to a flow line of 410 feet, city datum, including dams, road diversion and stripping of the basin, and for the completion of a 36-inch pipe line to the city. During 189.4 and 1895 these contracts were executed, and a regular supply was furnished in January, 1896. It was decided to postpone further work at the reservoir until more storage should be found necessary, but the rapid increase in consumption, due to the growth of the city and the very dry season of 1899, forbade longer delay and in the years 1901 and 1902 the dams were built up to their full height as planned. At the same time the additional flowage was thoroughly stripped of top soil and all stumps and roots taken out.
The reservoir was first filled to its maximum level in December, 1901, the water rising rapidly as a result of a severe storm. Observations since that time indicate that the work is of excellent character, leakage through the dams being Vol. I-3
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very small. On the down-stream face of the masonry dam, the sweating is so inconsiderable that on a clear, bright day it practically all evaporates.
The reservoir has an area of 105 acres, and a total capacity of 730,000,000 gallons.
In 1904 under the direction of Mr. Cairns, a high service water supply was planned and partially completed, giving the thousands who lived on high ground an adequate supply of excellent drinking water for the first time. An inlet gate house was constructed in East Mountain Reservoir and connection was made by means of a pipe line with the high ground in the northeastern and northern sections of the city. In 1907 the pipe line was extended clear across the city to the Town Plot section,-a difficult piece of construction. Since then the Silver Street pumping station and that known as the Willow Street pumping station have been constructed with a view to filling the East Mountain Reservoir from the Wigwam system and keeping up the water pressure. Both pumping stations can be utilized to send water supply from the Wigwam reservoir to the East Mountain reservoir when necessary.
The water tower on Hill Street, which has a capacity of 50,000 gallons, was finished last year to supply a small population on the higher levels of that particu- lar district. A smaller one is now being built in the Bunker Hill district to supply Elmhurst.
In 1909 when Waterbury was estimated to have a population of 75,000, work was begun on the second of the city's larger reservoir systems.
The Morris dam is located on the same stream as the Wigwam dam, a little more than a mile farther up stream. In distinction from the latter, however, it is an earth dam with concrete core-wall, a study of the conditions and available material having proved an earth dam to be most economical. Its greatest height above the surface of the valley is about one hundred feet and its length 1, 100 feet, including the waste weir. It adds a storage of 2,000,000,000 gallons to that afforded by the Wigwam reservoir.
The foundations of the core-wall rest on a ledge of solid rock extending across the entire width of the valley. On the side slopes, rock is at a depth of but a few feet from the original surface, while in the center of the valley the foundation pit had to be carried down to a depth of forty-five feet by the use of steel sheet piling.
The foundations of the head-walls, gate-house and spillway, located at the west end of the dam, also rest on solid rock. A reinforced concrete drain tunnel, about thirty-four square feet in section, is located on the ledge at the foot of the western slope. This took all the normal flow of the creek during construction. It leads into the down stream gate-house, where 24-inch pipe connections are made with a pipe leading into the present city main from the Wigwam reservoir, and with a blow-off into the lower reservoir. These gates, however, are not intended for regular use, but only for exceptional occasions when the water should become very low or when it may become necessary to draw off the reservoir.
The service gate-house is on the western end of the dam on the head-wall between the embankment and spillway. It has six 30-inch intakes leading into two intake walls. They are provided with separately operated gate valves.
A 24-inch pipe line is constructed around the Wigwam reservoir connecting directly with the city service main below the Wigwam dam, so that if the city wishes to discontinue the Wigwam service for any purpose, such as cleaning the reservoir basin, it can get its supply direct from the Morris reservoir.
The third reservoir, known as the Pitch Brook reservoir, is to be built just above the Morris dam and will add 1,440,200,000 gallons to the city's supply.
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
The cost of this will be very heavy, owing to present building conditions. The construction of this reservoir necessitated the re-location of two highways, and plans and profiles were made for this and the work has been completed. The Wigwam Brook diversion, which means a tunnel 1,600 feet long and a small diversion dam, part of the third reservoir system, are well under way.
In a letter to the mayor, published August 15. 1917, Mr. Cairns commented on the latest phases of the situation.
In his communication, Mr. Cairns said that considerable progress had been made in the making of surveys for the new pipe line from the Wigwam reservoir and enough of the work had been done to determine the availability of the pro- posed line by way of Steele's Brook Valley. He added that some question had arisen as to the possibility of using Steele's Brook Valley route or parallelling the present line. The former would require two miles of tunneling. Mr. Cairns continued :
"I have made some approximate estimates with results in which you are interested. It appears that if we should decide to parallel the present 36-inch main from the Wigwam reservoir to West Main Street, with a 36-inch main, the cost of the iron pipe f. o. b. Waterbury at present prices will be about $1,250,- 000. This is about five times as much as we paid for 36-inch pipe in 1894. The difference in weight between the 36-inch and the 42-inch is 30 per cent. So far as I can judge, the cost of such a pipe line will be approximately the same by either route and at present prices will be about $2,000,000.
"The extraordinary and unprecedented costs with which we are confronted are calculated to cause hesitation in committing the city to any definite plan in regard to the proposed new reservoir and also it is evident that the work if undertaken now will cost approximately twice what it was estimated at three years ago. At that time I thought it could be constructed for $800,000, but it is doubtful now if it can be built for less than $1.500,000."
THIE UNCOMPLETED SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANT 1140689
Waterbury had expended up to September 1. 1917, $440,345.10 on its sewage disposal plant. This is approximately $11,000.00 more than the amount of the authorized bond issue. It includes, moreover, the full amount of damages obtained to date by the Platt Brothers Company for sewage pollution of the Naugatuck during the legally prohibited months,-June Ist to December Ist. This averages $2,800.00 a year, and the last amount paid the concern was $28,000.00 on April 13, 1915, covering a damage period of ten years.
The sewage disposal plant, on which work was stopped in 1908, while giving satisfactory service, is still far from complete. According to the original plan about $300.000.00 would have built the pumping plant and the purification tanks and beds. Today City Engineer Cairns figures that the cost would be two or three times the figures as estimated in 1907 and 1908.
The history of the city's sewage disposal plant dates back officially to 1890, although its need had been apparent many years prior to that date.
In 1890 Mr. Cairns, heeding the many complaints from residents along the banks of the Naugatuck River, suggested the purchase of land so that sewage could be conveyed to it and rendered pure for discharge into the river. In this historical report the suggestion was first made for a survey and for plans for a sewage disposal plant.
It was in a way also the first expression of the discontent that ended in the long litigation with the Platt Brothers Company. In 1892 suit was brought and
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
the city began preparation for an elaborate defense. This litigation extended over a period of over ten years. In 1898 came the first adverse decision in the Superior Court, and the city appealed to the Supreme Court, which in 1903 awarded nominal damages to the Platt Brothers Company, but by enjoining the city from emptying its sewage into the Naugatuck River from June Ist to December Ist of each year, made the damages continuing. Thus, by agreement, the city is using its old sewage disposal system, but is paying $2,800.00 damages yearly for the privilege.
In 1895, however, the city had concluded to begin active work on a sewage disposal plant and engaged one of the best specialists available, Rudolph Hering, of New York. to study its problem. In 1895 and 1896, under the direction of Mr. Hering and Mr. Cairns, extensive surveys were made by the engineering department. In 1896, Mr. Hering recommended two methods. One was to use a combined precipitation and filtration plant, to be established at a point on the west bank of the Naugatuck River, about opposite Platt's Mills. The other was to dispose of the sewage by filtration, also, on a field west of Beacon Falls.
In discussing these recommendations, Mr. Cairns commented at length on the unfortunate location of Waterbury, making necessary a very long and very expensive outfall sewer. It was the construction of this outfall sewer for ten miles through a very rugged valley that made the Beacon Falls plan hopeless. In Mr. Cairns' opinion, construction would prove sufficiently expensive to Platt's Mills, only about a mile and a half below the main outfall at that time.
In 1903 with the litigation decided against the city, orders were issued for the construction of works for the treatment of city sewage, the location to be at Platt's Mills. The city secured by condemnation the Bancroft and Upson Farms between South Leonard Street and Platt's Mills. There was little trouble in inducing the railroad to change its tracks which crossed this land. Then began the survey and mapping out of the whole territory south of Washington Avenue, preparatory to gathering the different outfall sewers into one channel and to the construction of a main carrier to the disposal fields.
The work of construction was necessarily slow. In 1907, a year of great national depression, the sale of bonds was almost impossible. But all obstacles were eventually overcome. Early in 1908, section one of the main carrier which had been under construction for two years was officially put into use, together with section two, which had been completed in 1907. These sections extend from a point a little north of Washington Bridge, southerly along the west bank of the river, through Railroad Hill Street to South Leonard Street, and again along the west bank of the river to a point just above Nichols Falls, taking all the sewage from the old Benedict Street trunk sewer, the Mad River interceptor, and the Brooklyn main sewer, and conveying it to a temporary outlet into the Naugatuck about opposite the old Smith & Griggs factory, a distance of 7,100 feet.
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