wonderful history that still is truly in our backyard. Oral Histories 92 Solemn River there, it’s got to be 150 feet high. And there were times when the kids—you know, I’d say to the kids, “Okay, you can go up about 20 or 30 feet, but then you have to come back down, because I don’t want anyone getting hurt.” They were just, they were so excited, they would scramble up, and up they would go, and I’d have parents standing next to me going, “Mr. Oechsner, do you think maybe this is a little too dangerous?” And I would say, “Yes it is, but I think, you know, I think they can handle it, and let’s see how they do,” and I must admit to you, those were nervous times. But when those kids—some of them, some of those were challenged kids—when those kids would make it to the top of the side of that wall, to see the expressions on their face, and to see the fact that they had done it, and here was this 1842 piece of architectural engineering history that was still there in their backyard—it was kind of exciting stuff. Another thing that the kids loved were the culverts, which were tunnels that were built by the engineers either underneath the aqueduct or over the top of the aqueduct. The job of the culvert was to divert water from streams that were running from above the aqueduct down to below the aqueduct. So whenever there was a storm...or there was freezing in the spring from winter snow, the water would come pouring down over the top of the aqueduct, so the engineers had to make sure that that water was diverted or redirected so that it wouldn’t actually hit the side of the aqueduct or the upper part of the aqueduct where you’d have erosion and the aqueduct would have collapsed. And of course from 1842 until the 1950s, the Old Croton Aqueduct pretty much took care of the water needs of the city of New York, so it was a valuable, valuable resource for the city. Another thing that the—and the kids, some of the, some of the culverts were Section 4: Interpretation segment, whether it was the architecture, the social history, the Revolutionary War, what was going on during the war, Native Americans, whatever I could tie in chronologically to that particular piece. So I would pretty much hammer at them for about a week to two weeks. They took tremendous notes, and we had lively discussions, and I could feel the energy building in the class. Again, we’re talking about 130 kids over a school day, right, broken into about 6 classes, but...one of the exciting things for me as a teacher was to feel the energy growing, like, “We wanna go, we wanna go, we want to see these things.” Because I was kind of teasing them over that two week period, like, “Well this is what you’re going to see, I won’t show you too much of it, but this is one of the things you’re going to see.” As far as the aqueduct itself, the trail, I’m not talking about buildings along both sides of the aqueduct, but, what did the kids find fascinating from going from the classroom to actually getting off the bus, getting their little hiking sticks and tying their sneakers and putting on their hats and their backpacks and they had their lunch with them, and off we would go...They were interested in things like the stone sides of the aqueduct, the fact that John Jervis, who was the chief engineer, and his predominantly Irish workmen put stones along the outside of the aqueduct...The aqueduct was built primarily of stone, cement, and brick, and then covered in earth, and then stones were laid on the sides of the aqueduct to prevent water from getting down into the aqueduct itself, and to prevent erosion, etc. And the kids used to love the sidewalls of the aqueduct, and when they could, when I felt it wasn’t too dangerous, I would actually let them crawl up and down the sidewalls. Sometimes it got a little scary, like down at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where it crosses the Oral History 2: Scott Craven Scott Craven, a former student in Mr. O.’s class, is now a captain of the police force in Ossining. A lifelong resident of the village with a background in history, he “loves to speak about the aqueduct.” For him, the Croton 93 94 were down there before we closed the weir chamber. Unfortunately when I walked to the south, it was a couple of hundred yards to the gate, and by the time I turned around, it was a pinpoint of light. And I am claustrophobic