[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] ( >n the 3d of May, 1839, the legisla-ture passed the following law: The water commissioners shall construct an aqueduct over the Harlem River with arches and piers; the arches in the channel of said river shall he 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 crown; or they may carry the water across the river by a tunnel under the channel of the river, the top of which shall not lie above the present bed of the said channel. The "High Bridge" was contracted for in August, 1839. Soon afterward the works on Manhattan Island were placed under con-tract. Tin' original water commissioners appointed in 1833 * retired in March, 1840, and were succeeded by Samuel Stevens, Benjamin Bird-sail, John I). Ward, and Samuel B. Childs. The dam across the Croton River was commenced in January, 1838, and was completed about the end of 1840. This dam was formed of 1 All the original commissioners except I'.. new board. Mr. Brown was succeeded by M. Brown served until the appointment of the Thomas T. Woodruff. 558 HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY " hydraulic stone masonry, connected with an earthen embankment," the embankment being two hundred and fifty feet long, sixty-five feet high at its extreme height, two hundred and fifty feet wide at the base, and fifty-five feet wide at the top, " protected on its lower