THE CATSKILL WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

THE CATSKILL WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

Specially written for Fire and Water Engineering.

大系统在建new water supply of New York City has been described in these columns as the work progressed. The finishing of the Rondout syphon advances the system a stage further towards com pletion. A brief review of the aqueduct ami recent construction is given herewith, also a diagram showing the proposed change of plan for the Manhattan end of the scheme. On June 20. 1907, work was begun upon the Catskill aqueduct. The turning of the first sod in the hills behind Cold Spring by Mayor McClellan inaugurated the building of the Ashokan reservoir, which is the most important feature in an aqueduct 35 miles longer than any built under the Roman empire. Only two years previous the legislature sanctioned the work, and preliminary surveying was organized. Before starting the work it was necessary for New York City to formally take title to a strip of ground 200 feet wide and 96 miles long, stretching from the city line to the Ashokan reservoir site. This was done on February 23, 1907. The contract for the building of the first section of the aqueduct to bring the Esopus watershed water to New York City was awarded to the McNally Company, of Pittsburg, for $4,126,423. This section was to extend through Putnam and the northern portion of Westchester counties. The total area of all the projected watersheds is more than 1)00 square miles, taking in the valleys of the Esopus, the Schoharie, the Rondout and the Catskill creeks. These four creeks are the main sources of supply, and their combined output will exceed 800,000,000 gallons daily. The Ashokan reservoir, which is the largest in the system, will be 12J4 miles long and l'/j miles wide. It will be 590 feet above tide. Its shore line will be 40 miles and its water area 12.8 square miles. This reservoir is located fourteen miles west of the Hudson at Kingston. The reservoir will consist of a string of dams of masonry and earth about five miles in length and will be cut in two by another dam half a mile long. The biggest of these dams is the Olive Bridge dam,the top of which is nearly a mile in length and 240 feet high. The centre is constructed of solid masonry, 190 feet wide at the bottom and 23 feet wide and 1,000 feet long at the top. The Ashokan reservoir is only one of those which are to be constructed. There are seven others. The main aqueduct is to proceed from the Ashokan reservoir. The Rondout water will be fed into this aqueduct by a branch, which will connect with it twelve miles below the point where the main line begins.