Under this arrangement of the work, the whole amount required by this department to bring the water to Murray's Hill, will not differ materially from $650,000, which includes the settling up the demands for work already done on the several contracts not yet completed. CLENDENING VALLEY. The Common Council will recollect that we informed them, through their Committee, in July, 1840, thatwe proposed dispensing with the arched bridges contemplated to be made by the original plan, over 96th, 97th, and 101st streets. The two Boards, by resolution, in 1840, approved the contemplated change. His Honor, the late Mayor, fearing enormous damages would be exacted by the contractors, doubted the expediency of the measure, and deemed it his duty to veto the resolution of the two Boards. Neither of the Boards of the Common Council took into consideration the veto message of the late Mayor, that we are aware of, and as the responsibility of the work, and its mode of construction, was legally with this Board, we" deemed it our duty to dispense with the bridges in question, and the work at the Clendening Valley is now completed without them. The saving, by this alteration, has been $52,000, and a more substantial and durable work made to supply the place of arches. We have also arranged with the contractors,

CROTON AQ.UEDUCT. 193

to settle all their claims for this departure from the original plan, and for the material which they had provided for the arches, for the sum of $4,500. The excavation of about 50,000 cubic yards of rock has been dispensed with in the receiving reservoir, of which about 45,000 lie in the northern division. This constitutes a saving of $50,000, one dollar per cubic yard being the price for excavatin g.