situated. James Palmer was the chairman of the committee, and brought good practical sense as well as an honest reputation to the support of the measure. The plan was fully discussed — was CROTON AQ.UEDUCT. 197 pronounced by some to be visionary, and it was declared by a member then in the city councils, that water enough could not be procured to fill a tea-kettle, much less the tanks and pipes ! ! The reply to that argument was, " Give us the tank and pipes, and we engage to fill them, if we have to carry the water in quart bottles." The report was adopted, the tank constructed, the pipes laid down, and the hydrants erected. No public cisterns were ever afterwards made. Every subsequent year added length to the line of pipes, until we now have 130 miles, and the Croton River flows into that tank, and through those pipes and hydrants, erected by the appropriation of that night. Fortuitous circumstances reserved for the gentleman, who in 1829, in his place in the Common Council, gave the pledge, " that in case the well to be dug on the point of the rock on 13th street would not fill the tank and pipes in Broadway and the Bowery with water, that they should be filled, if need be, with quart bottles," 13 years afterwards, on the 4th of July, 1842, to open the gates of the reservoir and fill these very pipes and this very tank, not from " quart bottles," but from the Croton River, passing through the whole line of the Croton Aqueduct ! The gentleman here referred to, was Samuel Stevens, Esq., the presiding officer of the Board of Commissioners, whose name and services will be recorded with those of Stephen Allen, and Douglas and Jervis, for the enduring gratitude of the distant generations, whose health, comfort, and safety will, while " grass grows and water runs," continue to be promoted by the great work, to which these gentlemen devoted such faithful and intel- ligent care. On the 20th January, 1843, the then Commissioners made their final report, which, announced the completion of the Croton Dam, and that it had undergone, without damage, the test of a full ordinary freshet caused by the warm rains, and the breaking up of the ice in the early part of January. The utmost rise of the water above the dam was 25 inches ; although, according to estimate, a million gallons per minute passed over it, exclusive of that which escaped through the waste culvert of the dam, and through the aqueduct. This quantity of waste water, was one hundred and twenty times more than that brought to the city by the aqueduct. The Harlem bridge was reported to be in satisfactory progress. " The foundations of all the land piers, on both sides of the river," says the Report, " are completed, and the masonry of several of them is carried to a considerable height, presenting an appearance of great solidity and beauty. The foundations of five of the river-piers, Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, are also completed, and the stone work of the first four has been carried to the height of forty feet or more, and the last, No. 11, is nearly ready to receive the mason- ry. The work upon the two remaining foundations, Nos. 12 and 13, is in progress. The excavation for No. 12 is completed, and a large part of the bearing piles are driven. The contractors have recently erected another steam engine for the purpose of pumping 50 198 MEMOIR OF THE and hoisting out the earth excavated in No. 13. The precise character of the foundation for this pier has not yet been very satisfactorily ascertained. The indications at present are, that it will be found similar to that of Nos. 10, 11 and 12, and require piling in the same manner. The coffer dams, used for putting down these foundations, have been found to answer their intended purpose very perfectly. No accident has thus far attend- ed their use, and they have been kept free of water with less difficulty than could reason- ably have been expected." The whole amount expended on the works up to 20 January, is stated by the Com- missioners at seven millions nine hundred and ten thousand four hundred and seventy- six dollars, to which a further amount of $662,540, required for work unfinished and contracts unsettled, would be added. Both these sums, however, are exclusive of the pipes laid from the distributing reservoir, that head of expenditure being under the charge of the Corporation. The certainty of an adequate supply of water from the reservoirs, even when the aqueduct is under repair, is thus strongly stated in this Report. "