The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 150

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 150

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In domestic relations Mr. Hazzard has been greatly blessed. In 1849, he married Rhoda T., daughter of John L. Ward, formerly a resident of Brooklyn. Of their family, five chil- dren only are living ; six lie huried in Greenwood.

Although Mr. Hazzard lacked a father's guiding hand in his youth, his mother was spared to him longer; to her ex cellent precepts and examples, he freely acknowledges that he owes his success in life.

SEWERAGE SYSTEM OF BROOKLYN.

BY VAN BRUNT BERGEN, C. E.

By an Act of the Legislature, passed April 15, 1857, the Constructing Board of Commissioners of the Brook- lyn Water Works, was directed to prepare plans for a system of sewerage for the city, and proceed to con- struct the sewers wherever needed.

The building of the water works, insuring a liberal supply of water to the city, made apparent to the au- thorities the necessity of at once providing a system of sewerage to carry off the waste water.

As long as the inhabitants of a city obtain water from wells, with all the labor of pumping or raising it

in buckets from a considerable depth, a very small sup ply is considered sufficient for domestic purposes and cleanliness ; this, after use, is generally discharged into the cesspool in the back yard, and passes off into the soil.

The percolation of waste water from cesspools, and especially from privy vaults, spreading over a greater area each year, and eventually finding its way to the water-bearing strata beneath, from which the wells de- rive their supply, poisons the drinking water of the locality, and sows the germs of many deadly diseases,

592

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

long before the contamination becomes perceptible or offensive to the taste.

Such has been the case in Brooklyn, where, from a mistaken policy, caused by the fear that in some way the supply furnished by the water works might fail, the old wells in many instances have been allowed to remain, and have been kept in repair. From year to ycar, the analysis of the Board of Health has proved the danger- ous ebaracter of the water, and the city authorities have been called upon to close the wells; but the inhabitants, who, from daily use, have become accustomed to the changed character of the water, which is cool and spark- ling, protest, and, sometimes, successfully. (On Janu- ary 1, 1883, there were remaining in use in the eity of Brooklyn, 275 wells. Most of them have been dc- clared dangerous to health by the Board of Health, and will be filled in before January 1, 1884).

The Constructing Board appointed James P. Kirk- wood, the chief engineer of the water works, their en- ginecr to prepare plans for a system of sewerage, in accordance with the provisions of the Act; but, as Mr. Kirkwood's duties in connection with the construction of the water works fully occupied his time, he was authorized by the Board to employ Julius W. Adams, Civil Engineer, to prepare the necessary plans. Shortly after, Mr. Kirkwood resigned the position of Engineer of Sewerage, and Mr. Adams was appointed in his stcad.

On September 10, 1857, plans for the drainage of the First, Third, and Sixth Wards of the city, were pre- sented by Mr. Adams, and on March 19, 1859, a report on the general drainage of the city was sent to, and adopted by the Commissioners.

The total length of sewers built in Brooklyn, previous to 1857, was 5 100 5.5 miles. Most of them were large enough to permit men to enter, and clean out any accu- mulations that caused stoppages or became offensive. They had been built, not for house drainage, which at that time passed into the cesspools, or was thrown out into the gutters, but for the purpose of draining ponds which accumulated with heavy rains in certain low- lying sections of the city. In the plan proposed by Mr. Adams, these drains, where possible, were utilized as main sewers. In determining upon a sewerage sys- tem for Brooklyn, the practice and experience of Eng- lish cities were closely studied. Sewers, as first built, were intended to carry off the rainfall and sewage of the streets, not the house drainage, or the contents of water-closets and privics. Previous to 1850, or thereabouts, this system had been changed in many English cities, and sewers had been constructed to take all house sewage as well as the rainfall. At this time the water supply of these cities was not suffi- cient to carry off the heavy matter, so accumulations of the most offensive character resulted. These were sometimes removed by manual labor, sometimes by heavy rains, but frequently remained till they became

putrescent, and exceedingly dangerous to the health of the community. All of these sewers were built suffi- ciently large for men to enter and remove the deposits. It was not till an increased supply of water for domes- tic purposes had been obtained-the water, after use, forming a " water carriage " of sufficient force to remove the dangerous matter-that the cities got rid of these poisonous, "elongated cesspools," which in some cases had caused terrible pestilences. Many of the engineers of that day, discovering the fallacy of the large sewers, introduced the smaller ones, calculating the sizes sim- ply from the amount of sewage and rainfall to be car- ried off. Experience has proved the correctness of this system; but, at the time Mr. Adams presented his plan for the sewers of Brooklyn, the contro- versy was at its height, many English engineers advo- cating the old methods, and insisting upon the neees- sity of the sewers being sufficiently large for entrance by men and wheelbarrows, and the cleaning out of accumulations by manual labor.

The plan, as adopted by the Commissioners, divided the city into four large divisions, the northern, com- prising ali that drains into the East River north of Wallabout Bay ; the middle, or eastern, com- prising all that drains into the Wallabout Bay ; the southern, comprising all that drains into Gowanus Creek, or bay ; and the western, comprising all that drains into the East River between the Wallabout Bay and Red Hook. Thesc divisions have been divided up into some eighteen districts, distinguished by the letters from "A" to "R," and designated as Map "A," etc. Each of these districts, except a few of the smaller near the river front, has its one main sewer discharging into the river, largest at its outlet, and gradually diminish- .ng as it extends within the city, branching through the different streets, until at last it ends in 12-inch pipe Sewers, these being the smallest used, and comprising by far the greatest length.

In 1858, when the Sewerage plans for the city were prepared, very little was known in this country of the question of city drainage; no data could be ob- tained from the experience of our larger cities, for no system had been adopted, and the size and character of the sewers built depended principally upon the peti- tions of property owners to the city authorities, and the amount of money they were willing to expend. Under these circumstances, it became necessary to look abroad for the requisite data, which was obtained from English engineers and reports, especially the Metropolitan Drainage Reports. The advantage of removing the house sewage from the vicinity of the dwellings on the day of its production; and the fact which had been established in certain English citics, that the waste water from domestic use was sufficient for such pur- pose, providing the sectional area of the sewers was small enough to concentrate the volume of water, led at once to the adoption of the small sewers and the

593

DEPARTMENT OF CITY WORKS.

. water-carriage system. But it was necessary that the sewers should also carry the surface drainage, for the city was not prepared to go to the expense of an extra system for storm water, so they had to bc enlarged for this purpose. The record of the rainfall had been kept in several places in the vicinity of the city for many years, but in very few cases had the volume and duration of individual storms been taken. In no case did these observations show a rainfall of one inch in an hour. The annual rainfall was of little value in deter- mining the size of the sewers. The heavy storms of short duration were to be considered, and although it was supposed that, at long intervals, rainfalls of short duration, at the rate of two or more inches an hour, did occur, the great expense of constructing sewers of suffi- cient capacity to carry off such rainfall was not consid- ered advisable; besides, it was believed such an increase in size would materially interfere with their usefulness under the conditions of the ordinary flow of sewage.

It was, therefore, decided to make the sewers suffi- ciently large to carry off a rainfall of one inch per hour. Accordingly, the dimensions have been calcula- ted and the sewers built to do this amount of work, for which experience has proved they have ample ca- pacity. With the introduction of self-registering rain guages, giving the volume and duration of storms, it has been found that rainfalls of short duration, at the rate of two inches, or cven three or four inches per hour, are not so infrequent as had been formerly sup- posed. In fact, they seem to occur every year, and some- times more than once during the year. With such storms in some portions of the city, and especially the low lying sections near tide water, the sewers become surcharged, the water backing up through the connec- tions, flooding cellars, and sometimes forcing its way through the manholes into the streets. There are, how- ever, but few places where such floods occur, and to relieve them a system of drains to take storm water has been devised, and in some cases built.

In the plan proposed by Col. Adams, the main sewers are in all cases discharged into tide water. If the location permits, they are carried out either by wooden trunks or iron pipe to the end of the piers, where the current is sufficiently strong to carry away the sewage and prevent deposits. Nevertheless, the heavy mat- ter must sink in the waters of the bay, and with the large and constantly increasing population of New York, Brooklyn and neighboring cities, the immense amount of daily deposit must eventually scriously effect the char- acter of the harbor. The time will probably come when it will be found necessary to build intercepting sewers, as has been done within a few years for the city of London, and discharge the sewage into the waters of the occan.

The elevation of the bottom of the sewers at their out- lets has been established at about one foot above low water. As the average tide is nearly five feet, at high

tide, the water of the bay has a depth in the mouth of the larger sewers of about four feet.

Some of the larger mains, passing through the low- lying sections of the city, to reach their points of dis- charge, have necessarily a very small fall; in some cases not more than one-half or three-fourths of an inch to the 100 feet. In these sewers the tide water backs up for a considerable distance, and retards the velocity of the discharge ; deposits form, and the accu- mulations of earth and sewage matter have to be re- moved by manual labor.

The greater portion of Brooklyn, sloping from the hills which pass near its southern boundary, to the wa- ters of the bay and the East river, has been not difficult to sewer ; but other sections, bordering upon the creeks, and filled over the salt marsh and mill-ponds, have pre- sented problems not so easy of solution. The Red Hook district of the city presents an instance of the kind. There the land is made mostly by filling in the salt marsh and mill ponds, and generally raised but a few feet above the waters of the bay. The bottom of the cellars is at, or below, the elevation of high water, and the streets have but slight inclination. The cellars cannot be drained, and the sewers must necessarily be laid but little below the surface of the streets, and with such small fall as to be always in danger of stoppages from accumulation of sewage matter.

No plan has as yet been proposed to sewer the small portion of the city which slopes from the hills toward the towns of Flatbush and New Utrecht. Here either long and expensive mains will have to be built, empty- ing into Jamaica and Gravesend bays, or the sewage utilized to enrich the agricultural lands of Kings county.

By the Act of April 15th, 1857, and the amendatory Act of 1859, the method of sewering the city and pay- ing the cost of the same was. determined. As already stated, the city was divided into separate drainage dis- tricts or maps, each having its own main discharging into tide water, and its system of laterals. Each of these districts was liable only for the cost of the sew- ers draining its own area. The amount of the expen- ses of constructing main sewers, as in the judgment of the Commissioners, exceeded the cost of constructing a proper lateral sewer in the street where the main was laid, was assessed upon all the property in the district to be benefitted. The cost of building the lateral sew- ers was assessed upon the property fronting on the street where the lateral was laid. To meet the neces- sary cost of the work, the city issued bonds, and. after the completion of the sewers, collected the assessments.

The intent of these laws has been to equalize, as near as possible, the cost of the construction of the sewers on all the property in a drainage district.

The total cost of the construction of sewers by the city (exclusive of sewers built prior to the organization of the departments), to January 1st, 1883, aggregates $7,136,997.27.

594

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

NUMBER OF MILES OF SEWERS COMPLETED FROM JAN- UARY 10, 1858, TO JANUARY 1, 1883.

SIZE.

MILES.

SIZE.

MILES.

12-inch pipe.

161.16

66-inch brick.

1.10

53.22

4.15

32.80

1.64

0.52

0.77

24-inch brick.

10.72

0.99

12.42

. ..

0.19

9.79

0.16

2.07

102

0.69

... ..

1.07

120

0.03

.....

1.94

Total

301.26

Built under Private Contract.

12-inch pipe.

4.31

0.56

0.06

30-inch brick

0.04

Built by Department.

12-inch pipe.

0.20

Total

306.79

NUMBER OF CONNECTIONS MADE WITH SEWERS FROM 1859 TO 1883.

YR.

No.

YR.

No.

1859

Con'ections m'de

422

1872

Con'ections m'de

2,845

1860

1,695

1873

5,276

1861

4,896

1874

3,648

1862

3,168

1875

. .

2,786

1863

1,984

1876

2,237

1864

1.301

1877

2,110

1865

1.519

1878

1,999

1866

3,605

1879

1,908

1867

2,922

1880

1,664

1868

3,286

1881

1869

3,501

1882

. .

2,061

1870

2,972

1871

2,861

Total.

62,538

5.95

108

0.24

.... . .

ROBERT VAN BUREN, C. E .- The subject of this sketch is Chief Engineer of the Department of City Works of Brook- lyn. In the marvelous marches of material progress for which our times have no parallels in the history of the past, the civil engineer, or managing superintendent, somewhat resembles the Lieutenant-General. He plans each campaign, and marshals each division, regiment and company of skill- ed or unskilled workers, on whose labor victory or defeat depend. His only superiors are the money kings or corpora- tions who indicate the desired courses and results, and fur- nish the sinews of war. Of the details and consecutive ap- proaches by which the proposed ends are to be attained, his employers can not furnish any suggestions. The modus ope- randi is the science of which he must be a master. Unlike

the Military General, his successes are never the result of ac- cident or chance.

Originating, perfecting and executive abilities are indis- pensable. The fact that a man holds such a position in this city is significant. It has come to be regarded as a certainty, that no man stands at the head of a Department under the administration of the young Corsican Mayor of Brooklyn, who has not been measured by the Napoleonic test of fitness. The Chief Engineer, of the Department of City Works, is a native of New York City, where he was born in 1843. His father, Hon. John A. Van Buren, is a worthy descendant of this old historic family. After a liberal range of prelimi- nary study, he entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, from which he graduated in 1864, with the degree of Civil Engineer. After a few months, he accepted a position as Mining Engineer ; and proceeded, in 1865, to the copper regions of Lake Superior. In less than a year, he returned, and secured employment as assistant engineer in the Brook- lyn Water Works, where he has remained to the present time. After successive promotions, he received, in 1877, the appointment he now holds. Few persons know the difficult, responsible, and arduous duties of the Chief Engineer. Be- sides the construction and maintainance of the vast and intri- cate system of water works and of sewers; the repaving and repairs of streets, the construction and maintainance of docks, bridges and piers, are all under his supervision. There are few engineering positions that include so much detail and so many branches of work. To the demands of all these diversified and exacting duties he has been found prompt and competent. His success in securing, at different times, additional water supply has been marked. During the year 1881, the city received from two immense wells, 50 feet in diameter, 5,000,000 gallons daily. In 1883, he established a system of driven-wells under contract with Messrs. Andrews & Co., from which 8,000,000 gallons daily are realized.

This last plan was a new resort for water that no other city ever attempted; a bold experiment, the large success of which has brought Mr. Van Buren's engineering resources largely into public notice. He has also completed import- ant plans for an extension of the Brooklyn water works, that will cost between three and four million of dollars. His work upon the sewerage has been signally important and successful. The system of intercepting sewers, for the pur- pose of relieving surcharged sewers during heavy storms, has been perfected under his directions, including enlarged plans, to complete which will cost, probably, $1,500,000. Mr. Van Buren served under James P. Kirkwood, Moses Lane, and Col. Julius W. Adams, receiving the confidence of all these distinguished engineers. During all these years he has given himself wholly to his official duties, refusing to as- sociate himself with any other engineering work, content that Brooklyn should receive the entire powers of his body and brain. By this devotion, Mr. Van Buren has won a re- putation for honor, ability and integrity, forming a character against which no word of reproach or question has ever been raised. Ripe in experience and wise in action, he is yet, in years and in buoyant spirits, comparatively a young man, with the best years of life still before him. If constant over- work does not destroy his physical and mental endurance, the public may expect greater benefits from his labors in the future than in the past.

. .

1,872

DEPARTMENT OF PARKS.

595

THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS.

BY THE EDITOR.

Sanctioned by JOHN Y. CULYER, Chief Engineer of the Department.

Few cities in the Union were more highly favored by nature, with superior sites and advantages for the creation of fine public parks and squares, than Brooklyn. When it was merely a suburban vil- lage, its cedar-crowned and wave-kissed Clover Hill, the "Iphetonga " of the aborigines, and the "Heights" of the present day, was the favored resorts of the beaux and belles ; while its magnificent capabilities, as a public promenade, had attracted the attention of Brooklyn's far-sighted citizens. Its owners liber- ally offered to dedicate a promenade, one hundred and fifty feet wide, on the edge of the hill, for a noble public walk ; the trustees of the village approved the project, and the chairman of the Street Committee, Mr. H. B. Pierrepont, in 1825, caused a plan and map to be made by Mr. Silas Ludlam, of the proposed im- provement. The opposition of one (otherwise excel- lent) man, through whose small premises the promenade would have passed, caused the defeat of this beneficent enterprise, and left Mr. Pierrepont to pay the expenses incurred, and to lay away the map in hope that the pro- ject would be carried out at a later day. In 1834, the village of Brooklyn, which was then bounded by Dis- trict (now Atlantic) street, was incorporated as a city, and its limits extended to the bounds of Williamsburg, Flatbush and New Utrecht. A commission having been authorized by the legislature, on the 23rd of April, 1835, the governor appointed three commissioners, with large discretionary powers, "to lay out streets, avenues and squares in the city of Brooklyn," who designated on their map the avenues and streets, which a Citizens' Committee had proposed, including the plot for Green- wood Cemetry, and stopped all streets at its boundary, except Hammond avenue, which crossed it diagonally in the direction of New Utrecht.

After the cemetery was opened, this avenue was closed by act of legislature. The other diagonal avenue, suggested in the citizens' plan, extending from the corner of Fulton and Sands street, to Bedford, was not adopted by the Commissioners. They designated in their plan eleven squares, as follows : City park, Washington park, Johnson square, Lafayette green, Bedford green, Marcy square, Prospect square, Reid square, Tompkins square, Fulton square and Mount Prospect square ; of these but three are now in exist- ence. The Commissioners' map was filed in the County Clerk's office, January 1st, 1839.

Washington Park, as originally located by the com- missioners, lay between Atlantic street, Flatbush avenue, Raymond street, Fulton avenue, and Canton street, but by act of the legislature, passed April 25th, 1845, this site reverted to its original owners, and the name was given to a park, to be laid out on Fort Green, between Canton and Cumberland streets, and Myrtle and De Kalb avenues. This commanding and attractive locality, was consecrated by the thrilling scenes of the Revolution, and at a later period (1812), by the patriotic labors of Columbia's sons and daugh- ters (for women assisted in throwing up the fortifica- tions), when threatened by foreign invasion, but it was barely saved from the leveling pick and shovel. Difficulties had arisen in reference to fixing the district to be assessed for the proposed improvement, and con- flicting interests had well nigh defeated it entirely, but the legislature listened favorably to the petition of five thousand tax paying citizens of Brooklyn, and passed a law April 27th, 1847, authorizing the Common Coun- cil to acquire title to the ground, and fence " Washing- ton park, on Fort Greene, in the city of Brooklyn." From that period, the work of improvement progressed, and at a cost of less than $200,000, the park was made one of the most central, delightful and healthful places for recreation, of which any city can boast. Brooklyn is indebted to the following gentlemen for this beau- tiful park, viz. : Hon. Henry C. Murphy, Seth Low, Esq., John Greenwood, Esq., A. G. Hammond, William Rock- well, N. B. Morse, Henry E. Pierrepont, J. C. Taylor, Jonathan Trotter, S. E. Johnson and C. R. Smith.

In 1868, it, with the other parks, was placed under the control and management of the Prospect Park Commissioners. It now covers thirty acres ; a large plaza between Myrtle avenue and Canton street is paved with concrete ; beyond this, rise three grassy terraces to the summit of the hill, with two broad flights of stone steps leading up the slope. On the second ter- race, between these steps, is the vault which contains the remains of the prison ship martyrs. The level pleateau on the high ground is laid out in green-ward, with broad walks, and a covered trellis, while the east- ern slope is devoted to the childrens' play grounds, and grass plots with trees and shrubs. The entire park is surrounded by a heavy rubble masonry wall, with granite coping, and its area is thirty and one-sixth acres.

596

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

The City Park, an area of seven acres, in the Seventh Ward (bounded by Park and Flushing ave- nues, and Navy and Park streets), cost, inclusive of fencing, grading, etc., about $65,000, and possesses no extraordinary beauty, either natural or artistic, to dis- tinguish it from other similar public squares. This is remembered by many of the older residents of Brook- lyn as a great spread of two hundred or three hundred acres of black mud ooze, water and strong smelling crceks, where school boys were wont to fish for killy- fish, with bent pins and picces of twine. It has always been a desolate, unattractive spot, and its repute as a resort of abandoned characters, ctc., was, a few years since, still more darkened by the Otero murder. By legislative cnactment of May 9, 1868, it was placed un- der the control of the Commissioners of Prospect Park, who pronounced it unsuitable for a public park; and, in view of its capacious and convenient sewerage, its ncar- ness to the East River, and its consequent easy commu- nication with all parts of the surrounding country, rec- ommended that its site be used for that great desidera- tum of Brooklyn, a public market.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 150

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114