In such circumstances it is highly improbable that any change in the plan for the aqueduct bridge would have been made if the people of Westchester had not compelled itby their aggressive acts. ( >n the 3d of May, 1839, the legislature passed the following law: The water commissioners shall construct an aqueduct over the Harlem River with arches and piers ; the arches in the channel of said river shall he at least eighty feet span, and not less than one hundred feet from the usual high water mark of the river to the under side of the arches at the crown ; or they may carry the water across the river by a tunnel under the channel of the river, the top of which shall not lie above the present bed of the said channel.

The "High Bridge" was contracted for in August, 1839. Soon afterward the works on Manhattan Island were placed under contract. Tin' original water commissioners appointed in 1833 * retired in March, 1840, and were succeeded by Samuel Stevens, Benjamin Birdsail, John I). Ward, and Samuel B. Childs. The dam across the Croton River was commenced in January, 1838, and was completed about the end of 1840. This dam was formed of 1 All the original commissioners except I'.. new board. Mr. Brown M. Brown served until the appointment of the Thomas T. Woodruff.

was

succeeded by

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

" hydraulic stone masonry, connected with an earthen embankment," the embankment being two hundred and fifty feet long, sixty-five feet high at its extreme height, two hundred and fifty feet wide at the base, and fifty-five feet wide at the top, " protected on its lower side by a heavy protection wall twenty feet wide at base." On the night of the 7th of January, 1841, in consequence of a sudden and great rise in the water of the Groton, the portion of the dam comprised in the earthen embankment gave way, and the whole country below was flooded.