The plan, however, may be modified, both in those particulars as well as others, if deemed expedient by your honorable body, and a high bridge may be substituted, instead of the syphon at the Harlem river and Manhattanville, by incurring an additional expenditure of one million, one hundred and eighty-eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety-two dollars; and by delivering the water in the city, at a much less elevation than what has been contemplated, a lower grade may be adopted for the aqueduct, that would prevent its rising above the present surface on this island. The Commissioners, however, do by no means recommend this deviation from the plan proposed ; but as some of their fellow citizens have expressed a solicitude that the water might be carried on an aqueduct bridge with architectural display, the Commissioners are disposed to be guided by the opinion, legally expressed, of your honorable body on the subject. That the permanent grade of the several streets and avenues, adjacent to the line of the aqueduct, ought, as far as practicable, to be made to conform to such line, the Commissioners think must be admitted ; and they trust, therefore, that the whole subject may be specially referred to a Joint Committee of both Boards and the Street Commissioner, with authority to take measures for opening and fixing the grade of such streets and avenues through which the water is to pass, and to adopt such modification of the plan, on the island of New York, as shall seem most conducive to the end in view and the Commis- ;