The second change came fifty years later, in the period between 1892 and 1905, as a result of the building of the great new Croton Dam to conserve all of the waters of the chain of Croton River lakes. Although the lowest bidder agreed to excavate the enormous pit down to bedrock, divert the river and build the great dam of masonry for a little over four million dollars, delays in acquiring the lands and farms New York City required, and the failures of the original bidders were such as to make the completed dam cost nearly seven million dollars. The contractors who were chosen finally to take up the

defaulted contract and complete the dam, depended upon the engineering ability of a mid-western expert, John Byron Goldsborough, who from then until the dam was finished in 1905, worked with great energy. It would take a volume to relate the progress at this enormous work. At the time it was completed, it was the largest dam in the world. Its building called for the most expert masons and mechanics. It called for a man power which was difficult to get. A village had to be established near where the Naumberg place is today. Boarding houses and homes, restaurants and shops sprung up. "Little Italy" was its name, and the local newspapers of that day likened its main street on pay nights to the Bowery. Croton village itself looked askance at the mushroom community. Then in 1905, the dam was finished. Croton Lake rose to its high normal level and the water poured over the spillway to the delight of hundreds of thousands who have viewed it since. "Little Italy" faded away and the colorful pay night became a memory. The cavalcade of wagons and trucks that had rolled and rattled down to Croton Landing every morning to receive the blocks of granite and tons of cement which kept pouring into Croton in endless profusion, ceased to operate.