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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 90, no. 2314]: July 20, 1912

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_050_00000159

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^M^ JULY 20, 1912. ' "^w^'mw^' '■ i '-.,«* _ai^ THERE WILL BE 2,000 AERATING JETS LIKE THIS AT KENSICO RESERVOIR. CATSKILL WATER SUPPLY AND ITS DISTRIBUTION Manhattan and Bronx Will Get 280,000,000 Gallons a Day, Brooklyn and Queens 200.000,000, and Richmond 20,000,000—First Installment of 250,000.000 Gallons in 1914. By CHARLESIN. CHADWICK, Member of^the Board of Catskill Water Supply. IN an address at the Academy of Music In Brooklyn on the "Making and Ad¬ ministration of a Modern City,'^ President Elliott of Harvard said that "the funda¬ mental elements are light, air and water." He placed the emphasis upon water. The problems of transportation, police, parks, schools and sanitation are vital, but the emphasis must be placed upon water; in the city the faucet is turned, '.lie water runs and the household affairs and economies adjust themselves orderly to the needs of the home. Turn the faucet and If the water does not run. the immediate remedy is the plumber; should the difficulty prove to be with the source of supply, the annoyance would soon become serious. Imagine for a moment the water supply of a great city cut off for a period of even two days. Such a condition would mean disaster; the activities of the city would be para¬ lyzed and all other problems would dis¬ appear in the greatest proTDlem of all— an adequate supply of pure and whole¬ some 'water for the needs of a great city. Such a condition threatened the city of Brooklyn in 1896; such a condition threat¬ ened the Borough of Manhattan last year. ' Light and air are ours, if we do not take pains to exclude them. Water is another matter. To secure an adequate supply of pure and wholesome water is a matter of time and of great expense; conditions must be studied, data ob¬ tained, reports made, public sentiment developed, before a great •work of this character can be actively undertaken. As a matter of fact, the problem of an additional supply of water for Greater New York was under discussion for more than eiight years before the city ac¬ tively undertook the work. In its solu¬ tion a great problem of civic administra¬ tion has been successfully worked out; out of it has grown perhaps the greatest construction 'work of a civic charactei; ever undertaken—the bringing of 500.- 000,000 gallons daily of pure and whole¬ some water from the Catskill Mountains to the metropolitan district of Greater New York, at an estimated cost of $177,- 000,000, involving the construction of great reservoirs and an aqueduct of one hun¬ dred and fifty miles in length, large enough for a train of Pullman cars to pass t'hrotigrli. The iplan covers a period of twenty years for the entire work. The first in¬ stallment of 250,000,000 gallons daily Is to be delivered within the first period of ten years, or in about two years from now the city of New York will drink the health of Father Knickerbocker in a cup of cold water brought from the far-away mountains of the Catskills. The second installment will follow in due time. All Boroughs AVill Be Supplied. This water is to be distributed through the five boroughs of the Greater New COMMISSIO.VER CHARLES N. CHADWICK York as needed. Queries are frequently made by residents of the different bor¬ oughs as to what advantage the ques¬ tioner's borougli Is to receive from the Catskill Mountain water supply. To each and every inquiry it can be stated that the Catskill supply is for the benefit of all five boroughs of the Greater New Tork. The aqueduct is being so con¬ structed that its operations will be adaptable to the varying needs of the several boroughs from time to time, and the Catskill system will supplement the Croton and Bronx supplies from the north, the Ridgewood supply from the east and the various local supplies in Queens and Hichmond. In a general way, an apportionment of the 500,000.000 gallons daily of the ulti¬ mate capacity of the Catskill Aqueduct has been made as follows: For the Bronx and Manhattan 280,000,- 000 gallons, for Brooklyn and Queens 200,- 000,000 gallons and for Richmond 20,000,- 000 gallons, daily. It will, however, be easily possible at any time to send more or less than this apportionment to any one of the boroughs, as may be de¬ termined by existing circumstances. Bronx Alay Have First Call. The Borough of the Bronx, being the most northerly, could have the first call on Catskill water, if this should be nec¬ essary. It will have advantages similar to those which accrue to the other bor¬ oughs, namely, that much public and private pumping can be done away with because of the higher elevation to which Catskill wate'r will rise by gravity, and the assurance of an abundant supply, supplementing its present sources, the Croton and the Bronx. Since Hill View Reservoir, just across the Yonkers' line, will have its water surface 235 feet above tide level, water in the Bronx will rise to nearly this elevation wherever proper arrangements of street piping are made therefor. But the Bronx will have some advantages peculiarly its own. The lit¬ tle reservoir near Valhalla, about three miles above White Plains, known as Lake Kensico, which formerly conserved the waters of the Bronx and Byram riv¬ ers, has already been supplanted by a much larger reservoir, known as New Rye Reservoir, temporarily formed in the bottom of the great new Kensico Reser¬ voir. This latter reservoir, now in progress of construction, will not only furnish ample storage for a great quantity of Catskill water near New "York, but will make possit)le the full use of all water of the Bronx and Byram rivers; thus the supply of the Williams¬ bridge district has already been improved, and is to have still further improvement. In order to protect the waters of the new Kensico reservoir, the city has taken large areas of marginal land; these, with the beautiful lake itself, will, make an attractive park. From the Borough of the Bronx to Kensico reservoir, the Bronx Parkway Commission proposes to build a fine boulevard along the Bronx river. Citi¬ zens of the Bronx will be the nearest to