Croton Aqueduct Triangle

The bricks poking up through the grass at this Greenstreets traffic island on Goulden and Reservoir Avenues are artifacts of the Old Croton Aqueduct. Opened in 1842, the 41-mile structure was the first public works project of its kind in the United States, and New York City’s first large-scale, reliable, and uninterrupted water supply system.

Until the construction of the aqueduct, New York City’s rapidly expanding population relied on public wells, barrel-based water sellers, and a single, inadequate water supply company. Water quality was low, and availability was limited, even for the rich. For the poorer segments of society, who had only the polluted wells, clean water was simply not an option. The water problem was exacerbated by the garbage and sewage created by a growing population crowded into inadequate housing. Piles of filth filled the streets, and cisterns overflowed, further contaminating rivers and groundwater.

A cholera epidemic in 1832 forced the City to recognize the necessity for public supervision of the water system. In October 1832, the Common Council authorized a thousand-dollar inquiry, and a year later the New York State Water Commission was created to oversee the solution. The commission found that the nearest site with the capacity for providing water of the quantity and quality needed was the Croton River, in Upper Westchester County. Surveyors deemed the project ambitious but possible. Administrators hesitated, daunted by the multimillion-dollar costs, but another cholera outbreak in 1834, combined with the Great Fire of 1835, which destroyed a full quarter of the downtown business district, forced the City to invest in the aqueduct.

After a year of planning, the original chief engineer, David Douglass, was removed and replaced by John B. Jervis, a veteran of the Erie Canal, who completed the design and implemented the project in six years, hiring independent contractors for each section. The innovative design utilized a gravity feed, running the water at a consistent slope of 13 inches per mile through an enclosed masonry structure crossing ridges, valleys, and rivers. The water was carried over the Roman-inspired High Bridge into upper Manhattan, to a reservoir in present-day Central Park. From there it flowed down to another reservoir, on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (the current site of the main branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park), for distribution to the city.

In June of 1842, crowds waited at the Fifth Avenue reservoir to welcome four people in a small boat, the Croton Maid, which had traversed the length of the newly completed tunnel. In October of that year, there were processions, fireworks, and public festivities to celebrate the abundance of clean water. But the city’s rapid growth soon outstripped the system’s capacity.

In the 1880s, plans were laid for the New Croton Aqueduct, an underground stone tunnel, which brought more water from sources throughout Westchester County. Eventually, demand outstripped supply again, even before the new aqueduct was finished, so that the City had to look yet farther north for its water. After prolonged public debate, the adjacent Jerome Park Reservoir was contracted in 1895 to ensure emergency water supplies in the event of damage to the stressed aqueduct system. The reservoir is on the former site of Jerome Racetrack, the original home of the Belmont Stakes.

Today, ten percent of the city’s water still flows from the Croton Dam to Jerome Park through the New Croton Aqueduct. The Old Croton Aqueduct, one of the great engineering feats of the mid-19th century, is now dry. Much of the upper section serves as a popular hiking trail, and pieces such as this cross-section can still be found throughout the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.

This Greenstreet was planted in the year 2000 with river birch (Betula nigra) and ginkgo trees (Ginkgo biloba). Shrubs, including sweet spire (Itea virginica), inkberry (Ilex glabra), and blue fescue (Festuca californica), are planted inside the cross-section of the Old Croton Aqueduct. The triangle is maintained with the help of volunteers from nearby Walton High School and the Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Association.