Your Water Comes From a Stream With No Name
In 1840, New York City had a population of 312,000. In 1898, it had grown to 3.4 million. Many things contributed to the city's population explosion, not the least of which was (according to the newspaper Weekly Sun in 1842) "the greatest blessing that a city like New York could receive — the introduction of an abundant supply of pure and wholesome water."
From its vast reservoirs to its hundreds of miles of aqueducts, New York City's water system is widely considered an engineering marvel. It delivers close to a billion gallons of drinking water a day to 9 million people in the city and neighboring municipalities.
Every time you turn on the tap, you are connecting to an invisible infrastructure that stretches through pipes, tunnels and aqueducts to tiny streams as far as 100 miles away or more.
Like this one in the Catskills. It flows into Birch Creek, Esopus Creek and the Ashokan Reservoir. The Ashokan is one of 19 reservoirs in New York City’s water supply system.
The reservoirs collect the rain and snowmelt flowing down from the mountains. Looking out over the Ashokan, you can see the high peaks of the Catskill Forest Preserve in the distance.
In a big stone building built around 1910, water flows from the reservoir into the aqueduct through valves and sluices.
The city’s first aqueduct opened in 1842 with a celebration at City Hall Park. Lewis H. von Vultee composed the tune, "The Croton Jubilee Quickstep," for the occasion, and a fountain shot water 50 feet into the air. There are about 7,000 miles of water mains in New York City, enough to send water from here to China.
New York City water pressure can send water up six stories. To reach greater heights, buildings have to pump water to tanks on their roofs. Henry Rosenwach's great great grandfather started a water tank business here in the late 1800’s.
For an audio tour of the New York City water system, listen to the segment. "The Cost of Our Water" is a collaboration with CityLimits.org. Special thanks to WQXR Intern Max Fine for playing "The Croton Jubilee Quickstep" for this story.
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