The first water works were commenced in 1799, (the year in which the Manhattan Company was incorporated for supplying New- York with water,) and consisted of forcing pumps, worked by steam engines, which raised the water from the Schuylkill into a reservoir, constructed at an elevation of fifty feet on the banks of the river, from which it was conveyed to the city in wooden pipes. In 1811 the city councils appointed a committee to devise means for procuring a more perfect supply than those in use afforded ;

and shortly after, two steam engines and pumps were established at Fairmount, another point of the Schuylkill, about two and a half miles from the city. A reservoir 318 feet in length, 167 in width, and 10 in depth, was made at an elevation of 98 feet, into which the water was forced from the river by the engines and pumps.

The great expense attending this mode of raising the water, caused the city authorities to cast about for some more economical, as well as effective, expedient, and accordingly

in 1819, a contract wasmade with Capt. Ariel Cooly, for damming the Schuylkill. For the sum of $150,000, he undertook to throw a dam of sufficient height across the river to create the requisite head of water, to construct the locks and canal for the accommodation of the navigation, to build the head arches of the race-way for the water power, and to excavate the race out of the solid rock. The whole length of the dam, including the