USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 58
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The beginning of the gigantie Croton Aqueduet enterprise dates from about the same time as the chartering of the first Westchester County railroad. On November 10, 1832, the joint committee on fire and water of the New York City common council engaged Colonel De Witt Clinton. a competent engineer, to examine the various sources and routes of water supply which had been suggested up to that time, and to make a careful report on the subject. Colonel Clinton recommended the Croton watershed as the source of supply, and demonstrated by unanswerable facts that no other source ade- quate to the ultimate needs of the city was available. This report marks the beginning, as a serious undertaking, of the project to conduct the Croton water to the city.
The history of New York's water supply is the subject of a monu mental work by Mr. Edward Wegmann (published in 1896), in which all the details of the earlier makeshift systems and schemes, and of the construction of both the old and the new aqueducts and the Bronx River conduit, with their associated dams, reservoirs, and other works in this county, Putnam, and New York City, are described.1 We shall briefly summarize this history, so far as its particulars are apropos to our narrative, down to the period of the completion of the first aqueduet, reserving notice of the later works for the proper chronological sequence.
It is of interest that in July, 1774, a proposal made by Christopher Colles to ereet a reservoir, pump water into it from wells, and con- vey the water through the several streets of the city in pipes, was adopted by the authorities of New York; and that land for the pur- pose of a reservoir on Great George Street, owned by Augustus Van Cortlandt and Frederick Van Cortlandt, of the Van Cortlandt fam- ily of our county, was purchased and works were built and put in operation. The Revolutionary War interfered with the development
1 Another work of great authority (exclu- sively, however, on the old aqueduct and ante- redent conditions) is the " Memoir, etc., of the Croton Aqueduct," compiled by Charles King
(1843). Most of the partlenlars of the first aqueduct in our text are digested from Mr. King's " Memoir."
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GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1812
of the plans thus inaugurated. After the Revolution frequent at- tention was given to the water problem, but it was not until 1798 that the necessity of ultimately solving the question by resorting to the streams of Westchester County was foreshadowed. In that year a committee of the common council approved a proposal which had been made by Dr. Joseph Brown for procuring a supply from the Bronx River, and Mr. Weston, the engineer of the canal companies of the State, was employed to thoroughly inquire into the matter. Dr. Brown's plan was to dam the Bronx about half a mile below Williams's Bridge. Calculating, however, that the elevation of the Bronx at that point was not sufficient to admit of drawing the water to the city by natural fall, he proposed that it should be raised to the requisite height by pumping machinery. Mr. Weston fully in- dorsed the Bronx project, but thought that " the Bronx is sufficiently elevated above the highest parts of the city to introduce its waters therein without the use of machinery." (Mr. Weston, however, favored damming the Broux at a northern point.) in addition, with far-seeing calenlation, he advised the conversion of " Little Rye Pond " and " Big Rye Pond " into reservoirs by building a dam six feet high, and the conducting of their water in an open canal to the Harlem River, " that stream to be crossed by a cast-iron cylinder of two feet diameter, with a descent of eight feet." The common council, accepting the Bronx idea, applied to the legislature for au- thority to carry it into execution, but at this stage private interest stepped in and thwarted the whole underaking. The artful Aaron Burr was at that time seeking a banking privilege from the legisla- ture, and, as an indirect means to his end, proposed to organize a water supply company, suited to the needs of the city, whose surplus capital should be employed in banking operations. Moreover, various eminent citizens, among whom was Alexander Hamilton, were skep- tical as to the practicability of raising the money necessary for the Bronx enterprise as a public policy. The movement ended in the organization of the so-called " Manhattan Company," in which the city vested the sole right of procuring and furnishing an additional water supply. This company was empowered to draw water from Westchester County, but it contented itself with sinking a large well in the city and distributing its contents to customers.
The enlightened project of Dr. Brown and Mr. Weston was, indeed. laid on the shelf for thirty years, during which New York, despite its greatly growing population and wealth, complacently continued to satisfy itself with water from its own bowels. There were occasional recurrences to the Bronx conception, but they had no practical issue. At last, in 1829, the community was aroused to action by the appalling
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
increase of destructive fires, mainly owing to the difficulty of obtain- ing water. During the preceding year the fire losses in the city had aggregated $600,000. A committee of the fire department made a searching examination of the merits of the old proposal to utilize the Bronx water, and submitted a favorable report, which was approved by the common conneil; and the latter body, in January, 1832, applied to the legislature for authority to borrow $2,000,000, the sum os timated as necessary to accomplish the object resolved upon. But the legislature discreetly declined to sanction the raising of such an amount " until it should be satisfactorily ascertained that the object in view, both as to the quantity and quality of water, could be accomplished by the expenditure proposed." A certain appre- hension was felt that the supply obtainable from the Bronx might in time prove insufficient. It was in consequence of this cautious attitude of the legislature that, as already noticed, Colonel Clinton was called upon, in November of the same year, to undertake a final investigation of the questions involved. His instructions were " to proceed and examine the continuation of the route from Chatterton Ilill, near White Plains, to Croton River, or such other sources in that vicinity from which he may suppose that an inexhaustible sup- ply of pure and wholesome water for the City of New York may be obtained."
In entering upon his very important commission Colonel Clinton labored under great disadvantages. No survey, even experimental, of a direct route from the Croton had ever been made. Attention had centered upon the Bronx River as the predestined source of sup- ply, with incidental feeders from the Sawmill and Byram. The public mind shrank from such a tremendous and seemingly fantastic pro- ceeding as the construction of an aquednet from the far distant Croton; whereas the Bronx, running straight down into the Harlem River, seemed to have been appointed by nature for the exact emer- gency. Previously to the sending out of Colonel Clinton, the only thought bestowed upon the Croton in this connection had been with reference to the possible joining of it to the Bronx by means of an artificial canal; and surveys had actually been made to that end, which, however, afforded no satisfaction.
Colonel Clinton's report was a very able and elaborate document. Carefully examining the Bronx project, he estimated that the maxi- mum quantity of water deliverable to the city from the Bronx River and the various feeders that could be availed of in connection with it would not exceed 12,000,000 gallons per day. Ile considered that this quantity would be sufficient for a quarter of a century, but pre- dieted that the city would have to resort to the Croton eventually;
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GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1842
and he hence concluded that it was expedient to lead the Croton water at once directly to the city. " In the Croton River at Pine's Bridge," said he, " there is never less than 20,000,000 gallons of water passing in every twenty-four hours. The river at this point is there- fore capable of supplying one million of people, allowing a consump- tion of twenty gallons to each person. This supply can be ang- mented by constructing reservoirs, and we have seen . that one reservoir could be constructed which would supply more than 7,000,000 of gallons per day within a few miles of Pine's Bridge. But if it were necessary, more than 7,000 acres could be ponded, and the water raised from six to sixteen feet : and also other supplies could be obtained, as I have before stated, in alluding to the Sharon Canal ronte and the East Branch of the Croton River." He favored the conveying of the water to New York in an open canal, and calenlated that the total cost of the work, including the means of distributing the water through the city, would not exceed $2,500,000.
It appears, however, that the employment of Colonel Clinton by the common council to reconnoiter the Croton was only a conces. sion to the advanced element of the population that demanded the most complete investigation of water supply conditions in West- chester County before definite steps should be taken. Simultaneously with his exploration of the Croton route, two other engineers were sent to make a final inquiry as to the Bronx and its related sources of supply; and their report indicates that they were relied on by the city officials to bring forward conclusive demonstration of the snffi- ciency of these sources. They marked out a route from Macomb's Dam to the Bronx River, which they declared to be the proper one for the long desired supply, and added: "The Croton cannot be brought in by this route, and cannot ever be needed, seeing that the quantity which can be obtained at a moderate cost through the val- ley of the Bronx will be sufficient for all city purposes." At the same time an analysis of the Bronx water was made by prominent chemists, which showed it to be of remarkable purity, not more than two grains of foreign matter being contained in a gallon. This is a fact of much historic interest in view of the present extreme contamina- tion of the waters of the Bronx most of the way below White Plains.
But the common council, in spite of its bias in favor of the Bronx, was unwilling to risk another appeal to the legislature based on a single exclusive plan, and accordingly sent up a bill calling for the appointment of water commissioners, who should " be invested with full power to examine all the plans hitherto proposed. to cause actual surveys to be made, to have the water tested, to estimate the prob- able expense, and generally to do whatever in their judgment may
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
be necessary to arrive at a right conclusion in the premises." This bill was passed by the legislature on the 26th of February, 1833, and the governor appointed as water commissioners, for the period of one year, Stephen Allen, B. M. Brown, S. Dusenberry, S. Alley, and William W. Fox.1 The commissioners engaged two engineers, Mr. Canvass White and Major Douglass, formerly professor of engi- neering at West Point, to undertake the requisite surveys, examina- tions, and estimates. Mr. White being occupied otherwise at the time, the whole work was performed by Major Douglass, who snb-
THE N.Y.AMERICAN.
FULTON
FIRE INSURANCE CO.
THE GREAT FIRE OF 1835 (NEW YORK CITY).
mitted his report in the November following. " Major Douglass ad- hered unfalteringly to the conviction that the Croton, and the Croton only, should be looked to and relied on. Like the Roman Marcius, whe, when the decemvirs and sybils indicated the Anio as the stream which the gods preferred for the supply of his aquednet, still adhered to the cold, pure, and abundant springs from the moun- tains of Tivoli, so Mr. Douglass, disregarding difficulties real and
1 Mr. Fox was at that time the most prominent citizen of our Village of West Farms.
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GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1812
imaginary, and heeding not at all the efforts still to cause the Bronx to be preferred, held fast to the Croton."
Major Douglass disposed forever of the Bronx proposal by demon strating that it was impossible, by whatever expedients, to procure from the Bronx a supply which for any considerable period would be satisfactorily large. Regarding the quality of the Crofon water, he made the following interesting statements:
The supplies of the Croton are derived almost exclusively from the elevated regions of the Highlands in Westchester and Putnam Counties, being Furnished by the pure springs which so remarkably characterize the granitic formation of that region. The ponds and lakes de- lineated on the map, and spoken of in a former part of this report, are among the mumber of these springs ; many of them three or four hundred aeres in extent, and one as large as a thousand aeres. All these ponds are surrounded by clear upland shores, without any inter- mixture of marsh ; and the surrounding country, cultivated as it is generally in grazing farms, presents an aspect of more than ordinary cleanness. The water, as might be expected under such circumstances, is perfectly soft and clear, much superior in the former respect to the waters of our western lakes, and fully equal in the latter. The Croton, fed by such springs, could scareely be otherwise than pure, and the fact of its purity was strongly verified by the experience of the party in every stage of the water during the season. Specimens were taken up both in the high and low state of the river, and have been analyzed by Mr. Chilton, and the results obtained fully corroborate these statements. It appears from his report annexed that the quantity of saline matter, probably the salts of lime and magnesia, does not exceed two and eight-tenths grains in the gallon; a quantity, he observes, so small that a considerable quantity of the water would be necessary to determine the proportions. About two grains of vegetable matter were also suspended in the water, in consequence of the rapid eurrent in which it was taken up, and which would of course subside in the receiving reservoir.
At its next session ( May 2, 1834) the legislature passed an ac! authorizing the reappointment of water commissioners, and direct- ing the commissioners to adopt a definite plan " for proenring such supply of water," with estimates as to the cost, which plan was to be submitted to the electors of New York City for approval of re- jection, by majority vote, at their regular city election in the year 1835. In the case of an affirmative vote by the people, the act pro- vided that a sum not exceeding $2,500,000 should be raised as " Water Stock of the City of New York," bearing five per cent. interest. The old commissioners were reappointed by the governor. They made a thorough re-examination of the matter, concluding with the opinion that " the whole [Croton] river can be brought to Murray Hill in a close aqueduct of masonry, at an expense of $4,250,000," and that the revenne acerning from water-rates would " overpay the interest on the cost of the work." The plan was referred to the people of the city for ratification, and at an election held in April, 1835, they ap- proved it by a vote of 17,330 to 5,963. In December of this year Now York suffered from a conflagration which far exceeded anything in its previous history. Seventeen compact blocks in the business center of the city were totally destroyed, entailing a loss of more than
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
$18,000,000. This conflagration is historically known as the Great Fire of 1835.
The commissioners selected Major Donglass as their chief engineer. and on the 6th of July, 1835, that gentleman, with fifteen assistants, took the field for preliminary work in our county. Their first care was to stake out the lake to be formed by damming the Croton, which it was at first calculated would have an area of 496 acres. But it was nearly two years before construction work was actually begun. Much trouble was experienced in satisfying the land owners along the line of the proposed aqueduct, who made vexations demands, among them the extraordinary one (expressed in a memorial to the legislature) that the legal possession and use of the land should remain with the original proprietors, notwithstanding the circum- stance of its having been paid for by the city. A measure to con- ciliate the Westchester County owners was passed by the legislature, but it gave little satisfaction. "The consequence of this discontent was that the commissioners were unable to make any purchase, by private contract, of lands along the line, and were therefore com- pelled to resort to the vice-chancellor for the appointment of com- missioners to take by appraisement whatever was needed." Major Douglass was superseded as chief engineer in 1836 by Mr. J. B. Jervis, under whose direction the whole work was carried to com- pletion. On the 26th of April, 1837, bids were opened " for furnish- ing the materials and completing the construction of twenty-three sections of the Croton Aqueduct, including the dam in the Croton, the aqueduct bridge over Sing Sing Kill, and the necessary excava- tions and tunneling on the line of about eight and one-half miles from the Croton to Sing Sing village." three years being allowed for the fulfillment of these contracts. Apprehension having been harbored by the citizens of Westchester County that disorder and malicious destruction of property would result from the employ- ment of the thousands of laborers, the contractors were required not to " give or sell any ardent spirits to their workmen," or to permit any such spirits to be given or sold, or even brought, upon the line; and that any trespasses committed by workmen should be punishable by the dismissal of the offenders. The line was divided into four di- visions, the first extending from the Croton ten and one-half miles to below Sing Sing, the second ten miles farther to Hastings, the third ten miles to Fordham Church, and the fourth ten and one-half miles to the distributing reservoir in the city.
By the 1st of December, 1837, 2,455 feet of the aqueduct had been completed, and during the next year the whole of the work in West-
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GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1812
chester County, thirty-three miles in length, had either been finished or placed under contract.
The means of crossing the Harlem River had become at this stage the most serious problem to be dealt with. At the time of the inan- guration of the enterprise there was a general disposition on the part of the people of New York City to regard the Harlem River with but scant consideration-as a waterway upon which people might ply boats to suit an idle or at best purely local convenience, but forever incapable of continuous navigation for any practical nses in conjunction with the shallow projection of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Macomb's Dam was then still in existence, blocking all passage be- youd the present Central Bridge. The old plan to bring the Bronx water into New York had been hampered by the fact that the Bronx River did not have a sufficient elevation at any point of its lower course to admit through the process of natural flow of the recep- tion of its water in New York at a height suitable for distribution to the upper sections of the city; and to overcome this difficulty it had been coolly proposed to build pumping works on the Westchester side of the Harlem, just above Macomb's Dam, and, from the power afforded by the dam, raise the waiting stream to a satisfactory height and so pass it over to Manhattan Island. In 1833 Major Donglass estimated that the total power furnished by Macomb's Dam would suffice to thus raise but 5,000,000 gallons daily, which, even in the then existing conditions of the city, would not be enough for its safe supply-an estimate that brought dismay to the Bronx advocates, and doubtless caused them to most heartily objurgate the foolish Harlem River, that misplaced, misshapen, ridiculous stream-a mere spew of Hellgate,-worthless for navigation, a hindrance to com- merce, and now found unqualified to generate the required volume of power.
This cireminstance that the Bronx scheme involved, as one of its essential features, the conversion of the Harlem River into a more producer of water power-and that in perpetnity-strikingly illus- Irates how contemptuously the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil water- way was rated.
When it became certain, in 1834, that the water-supply problem was to find its solution in a contimmons aqueduct from the Croton- such a confinous aqueduct being practicable in this case because of the Croton's sufficiently lofty elevation above tide,-it was pro- posed to carry the agnednet across the Harlem River by a low siphon bridge, as the least expensive work. In that connection no thought was given to possible objections on the score that the con- struction would permanently close the waterway against naviga-
1
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
tion. The navigation of the Harlem was already completely ob- structed by Macomb's Dam, and the addition of a new obstruction did not in the least trouble the New York public mind.
But in 1838 a bold stroke by the citizens of our Town of West- chester suddenly compelled the New Yorkers to change their atti- tude toward the Harlem. On March 3 of that year the Westchester
CROTOM
WATER
.1447
THIE CROTON WATER CELEBRATION, 1842.
land-owners held a meeting at Christopher Walton's store, at Ford- ham Corners, and appointed a committee to memorialize the legis- lature against the proposed low bridge, and also to ascertain the best method of removing the existing obstructions in the Harlem River. The committee, acting on the advice of counsel, decided to proceed against Macomb's Dam as a nuisance and to clear a passage-way for vessels through it. The resulting transactions are thus described by Mr. Fordham Morris in his History of the Town of Westchester:
Lewis G. Morris, then quite a young man, was, by the votes of his associates, intrusted with the leadership of the fight. In order to bring the question, if necessary, within the jurisdic- tion of the United States courts, it was determined that a vessel laden with a cargo from a neighboring State should ascend the river and demand passage way through the opening which the grant had directed should be kept for vessels, but which Macomb and his successors had neglected to provide. Mr. Morris therefore built a dock on his place about a mile north of the present site of High Bridge and chartered a periauger, called the "Nonpariel," with a cargo of coal on board consigned for delivery at Morris Dock. He arrived with his boat at the dam one evening [September 14, 1838], at full tide, and demanded of Feeks, the toll
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GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY TO 1842
gatherer, that the draw or passage-way be opened ; of course Feeks could not comply. Some Ilat boats which had been provided had on board a band of one hundred men ; and Fecks not opening the draw, Mr. Morris with his men forcibly removed a portion of the dam, so that the " Nonpariel " floated across. From that time a draw was always kept in the bridge, but for many years the passage was very difficult, the tide being so strong that it was only possible to pass at slack water.
The legality of this performance was subsequently sustained by the highest court of the State, Chancellor Walworth writing the opinion. " The Harlem River," he said, " is an arm of the sea and a publie navigable river. It was a public nuisance to obstruct the navigation thereof without authority of law."
At the time of this famous expedition the water commissioners had already officially adopted the plan for a low siphon bridge, to be " built over an embankment of stone, tilling up the whole of the natural channel, and with only one archway on the New York side only eighty feet high." The estimates made on the basis of this plan indicated a cost of but $426,000, as against nearly $936,000 for the construction of a high bridge; so that the abandonment of the adopted project would mean an added expense to the city of more than half a million dollars. Moreover, the original calculations of the total probable cost of the aqueduct from the Croton had by this time been found to be ridiculously small, and it began to be realized that the ultimate aggregate would approximate or exceed $10,000,000. The disastrous effects of the financial panie of 1837 were at that period being felt in their full force. In such circumstances it is highly improbable that any change in the plan for the aqueduct bridge would have been made if the people of Westchester had not com- pelled it by their aggressive acts. On the 3d of May, 1839, the legisla- ture passed the following law:
The water commissioners shall construct an aqueduct over the llarlem River with arches and piers ; the arches in the channel of said river shall be at least eighty feet span, and not less than one hundred feet from the usual high water mark of the river to the under side of the arches at the erown ; or they may carry the water across the river by a tunnel under the channel of the river, the top of which shall not be above the present bed of the said channel.
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