A Memoir of the Construction, Cost, and Capacity of the Croton Aqueduct
By his communication of the 18th April, 1834, he makes a total change in his projects, and states that he will build a dam about four miles above the Quaker Bridge, of 32 feet in height, and from thence conduct the water by an open canal of 10 feet bottom, 34 feet top, and 8 feet deep, to the height near Harlem River. His first proposition was, to take the water from the mouth of the river; second, from near the Quaker Bridge; and third, at Garritson's Mill, about four miles above the said bridge. Now, although this
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last proposition carries with it the semblance of feasibility, there is, nevertheless, nothing new in it for he only offers to remove the : dam from the place selected by our engineer, to a position some miles below it, while he follows the precise line designated by our report, and adopts the very objectionable plan of carrying the water in a large open canal, instead of a closed aqueduct of masonry as proposed by us. His objections to the aqueduct proposed by our report, on account of the water running through it becoming contaminated with some deleterious substances, and his decided preference to iron pipes, appear to have departed from his memory altogether for he now recommends an open canal ;
of large dimensions, subject, as it would be, to the numberless casualties incident to such constructions, besides being the receptacle of much filth in its long passage, the wash of the country, and the dissolving of the mineral and other substances combined with the earth through which it passes. The complaint raised in London against the water of the New River, is "that being an open canal, it is subject to the drainage of the country through which it runs, in consequence of a right claimed by the proprietors of the adjacent lands, and which the company have no means of obviating, neither have they any power to prevent persons from bathing in their aqueduct." Mr.