of New York presents, it is believed, the only instance of a comparatively small community, not exceeding at the time 280,000 inhabitants, deliberately voting that an enterprise should be undertaken, in a style and on a scale greatly beyond their actual or any near future wants, but which, designed to endure for ages, would bear record to those ages, however distant, of a race of men who were content to incur present burdens, for the benefit of a posterity they could never know. Having resolved on the work, they carried it forward with a degree of constancy and energy alike remarkable, so that in the space of five years, an aqueduct was completed, which, for the natural difficulties overcome, the substantial character of its structures, the very remarkable verification, in the results, of the previous calculations of the engineers as to the flow of the waters, and the quantity that could be delivered, for the extent of its course, and the abundance of its supply, may be ranked among the foremost of like under- takings throughout the world. Nor were the extraordinary financial difficulties which affected the whole country, almost the whole world, during the greater portion of the period this enterprise was in progress, permitted to check its steady advance. The city resolved that the means should be found, and they were found. Yet, with all this energy and perseverance, there was no rashness. The calculations of the cost, were carefully made, and it is a circumstance unparalleled probably in the history of like undertakings, and one which reflects great credit on the exactness of the knowledge of the chief engineer, Mr. Jervis, and on his professional skill and fidelity, that * Duten's Histoire de la navigation interieure de la France, p. 566, 7, vol. i. Paris 1829. CROTON AdUEDUCT. the very first estimate he gave, after he had made himself master of the details of the pro- posed work, and had the experience of some few contracts, has turned out to be within, and not much differing from, the actual cost. In Great Britain, it had grown into an arti- cle of faith, that the estimates of engineers for like works, were in no wise to be relied on, and certainly the experience of London justified such incredulity. The whole work was executed by contractors, employing free labor, was paid for by a single city, where slavery is t unknown, and is designed and calculated to supply the wants of any population which that city can sustain. Its copiousness of waters is so great, that two of its fountains daily throw away more water, than suffices for the supply of other large cities. Indeed, there is scarcely any feature of the work more imposing and magnificent than the volume of water which its fountains pour out in perennial flow, and the height to which they are projected. There are, to be sure, higher jets in Europe — the highest perhaps in the world is that of Cassel, in Westphalia, which, according to modern travellers, rises from a pipe of 12 inches in diameter, to the extraordinary height of two hundred feet — but it never plays much more than half an hour ! Its reservoir is on a hill behind the town, at an elevation of 300 feet. The " Grandes Eaux," or famous water works of Versailles, are in like manner mere holiday play-things, which on the first Sunday of every month are exhibited for the ad- miration of the crowds which then throng the avenues of that beautiful and sumptuous palace ; but at all other times, the sea-gods and the sea-horses, and the Neptunes and the Naiads, sculptured in marble or cast in bronze, and constituting groups in and about the various basins of these fountains, are dry as the gravel walks that lead to them. The cost* of the Croton Aqueduct was very great — but once made, it is final, and its waters being distributed by its own head, there is not, as in Paris and in London, in Phila- * TOTAL COST OF THE CROTON AGlUEDUCT. Paid for work done by contractors up to 1st April, 1843, Incidental expenses up to same date, including salaries of engineers and Commissioners Cost and rent of land for line of aqueduct Actual money cost of the aqueduct to the distributing reservoir at Murray's Hill Add, for procuring and laying water pipes ... Interest on water stock to 1st August, inclusive ----- Sundry water loan, and other expenses ------ $7,138,486 34 436,860 11 408,155 67 $7,983,503 12 1,878,839 51 1,577,459 43 12,818 55 Total expenditure - - - ...... •".*-'. 811,452,61961 The whole amount of stock authorised to be issued, is twelve millions of dollars. The balance unexpended will suffice to complete the high bridge over