Transcriber’s Note
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ILLUSTRATIONS
OF THE
CROTON AQUEDUCT,
BY
F. B. TOWER
OF THE
ENGINEER DEPARTMENT.
New-York and London:
Wiley and Putnam,1843.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843,by F. B. Tower, in the Clerk’s office of theDistrict Court of the Southern District of New-York.
TO
THE INHABITANTS
OF THE
CITY OF NEW-YORK,
WHOSE ENTERPRISE IS STRIKINGLY EXEMPLIFIED
BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
CROTON AQUEDUCT,
THIS BOOK
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
BY
THE AUTHOR.
v
PREFACE.
The views which I have given of the important points onthe line of the Croton Aqueduct, are from sketches takenfor my own satisfaction; but the interest so generally takenin the work, has suggested to me the propriety of presentingthem to the public in this form. Having been engaged inthe Engineer Department during the whole of the constructionof the Aqueduct, my acquaintance with it wouldenable me to present more of its details; but I have giventhose of the construction of the Aqueduct, and a generaloutline of the structures connected with it, trusting that amore detailed description may emanate from John B. Jervis,Esquire, who, as Chief Engineer, gave Plans and Specificationsfor the work during its construction.
A description from such source, accompanied with detailedplans of all the appurtenances of the Aqueduct, with theresults of experiments on the flow of water in the Aqueduct,would be a useful contribution to the cause of science, avaluable work to Engineers generally, and particularly so toyounger members of the profession.
The history which I have given of the preliminarymeasures leading to the accomplishment of this work, hasbeen obtained, mainly, from printed documents of theCommon Council. I have also had conversations with personsviwho were intimately concerned in some of those measures,and trust that I have made the history sufficiently fullto embrace the leading steps which were taken.
The accounts of the Aqueducts of ancient Rome, andthose built by the ancient Romans in other parts of Europe,also that of the Aqueducts of modern Rome, of Italy, France,&c., have been mostly obtained from the French work ofJ. Rondolet, in which the account of the Aqueducts ofancient Rome is translated from the Latin of Frontinus.
For the account of the Aqueducts of Mexico and SouthAmerica, I am indebt