mm iversity of California. FROM THE URHARY < >F DR. FRANCIS L I E B E R , Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, Is ow York. THK GIFT OF MICHAEL REES Of San Francisco, 1373. * l£^J -- CONSTRUCTION, COST, AND CAPACITY CEOTON AQUEDUCT, COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIVIC CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTEENTH OCTOBER, 1842, ON OCCASION OF THE COMPLETION OF THE GREAT WORK : PRECEDED BY A PRELIMINARY ESSAY ANCIENT AND MODERN A Q, U E D U C T S . BY CHARLES KING. NEW-YORK: PRINTED BY CHARLES KING 1843. Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by CHARLES KING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF NEW- YORK, WHO BY THEIR DELIBERATE VOTE, INVITED AND CONSENTED TO THE TAXATION BY WHICH THE VAST EXPENSE OF CONSTRUCTING THE CROTON AaUEDUCT WAS DEFRAYED ; AND TO THE SUCCESSIVE COMMON COUNCILS, WHO HAVE DILIGENTLY, INTELLIGENTLY, AND PERSEVERINGLY CARRIED OUT THIS VOTE TO A SUCCESSFUL AND MAGNIFICENT ISSUE, THIS VOLUME, RECORDING THE PROGRESS AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF AN ENTERPRISE, ALIKE GRAND IN DESIGN AND BENEFICENT IN RESULTS, IS INSCRIBED BY THEIR FELLOW CITIZEN, CHARLES KING. PREFACE IN LAYING this volume before the Common Council and the public, it may be proper to state the circumstances under which it was undertaken. In October last, after the Celebration which commemorated the completion of the CROTON AQUEDUCT, the joint Committee of the Common Council, constituting the Celebration Committee, determined that a Memoir of this great and successful en- terprise should be prepared, and by a unanimous vote confided the duty to the au- thor of the following pages. It was accepted with satisfaction, enabling him as it would, in recording the progress and completion of this noble and useful work, exceeding in grandeur and costliness any ever executed by a comparatively small community, to claim for the city of his birth and his affections, credit for that far-seeing and disinterested public spirit which, looking beyond the present, is content to endure and labor for remotest generations. In effect, water might have been obtained adequate to the actual wants of the city at very much less cost, leaving to posterity the care of providing for its own need ; but the more generous view prevailed, and, in deciding as the people of New York by their votes did, to construct an Aqueduct like those which, in attesting the grandeur of ancient Rome, still pour rivers into the streets of the fallen city, — " LONE MOTHER OF DEAD EMPIRES !" vi PREFACE. they furnished an admirable illustration of the public spirit and wise forecast of freemen. In prosecuting the investigations necessary for this work — which, after all, is much in the nature of a compilation — such time only could be devoted to it, as might be snatched from the engrossing and Sysiphean labors of a daily newspaper. Nevertheless, it is hoped that in the Preliminary Essay, in which a cursory ex- amination and description is attempted of the chief ancient and modern aqueducts, as well as of the devices for supplying themselves with water in use among the earliest peoples — nothing material to the information of the general reader is omitted. The Memoir of the Croton Aqueduct is compiled from official reports and doc- uments, as for the most part is the sketch of the numerous attempts which, from an early day, were made by the citizens of New York, to insure a supply of pure and wholesome water. In preparing the Preliminary Essay, it was necessary to look into many books, and their pages, when suited to the design in hand, have been freely availed of. Frontinus is the great authority as to the Roman Aqueducts, and his treatise is nearly embodied entire in these pages. Professor Charles Anthon's Dictionary of Antiquities, Stuart's Dictionary of Architecture, Hydraulia, a work published in London, by C. Matthews, in 1834, de- scriptive of water works in Great Britain, and the exceedingly clever book on Hy- draulics and Mechanics, published in our city last year, by THOMAS EWBANK, have furnished or indicated much of the material used in the Essay. To Ewbank's book particular obligation is acknowledged, alike for what is to be found in its pages, and for references they afford to other sources of information. Many other miscellaneous works have been consulted — which are occasionally indicated in the marginal notes. PREFACE. yji To Mr. David T. Valentine, the Assistant Clerk of the Board of Aldermen, the writer is greatly indebted for the means of compiling the Memoir. His long and faithful service in the office he holds — his remarkable familiarity with all that has