This is a detail of the Croton area from the map The Route of the New Aqueduct from Central Park to Croton Dam . . . prepared by the Aqueduct Commission in 1884. The route of the new aqueduct tunnel is the dark…

line shows the line of the old aqueduct and in the full black line shows the course of the new aqueduct.” The Old and New Croton Aqueduct System, looking south from Putnam County. Scientific American , 1887. Click to enlarge. When…

Here are two priceless “bird’s eye” views of the Croton Aqueduct, made eight years apart during the period when New York City was rapidly outgrowing the capacity of what we now call the Old Croton Aqueduct. One map looks…

Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843. View looking east, showing the smaller arch over what is today Aqueduct Street on the far left. F.B. Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley…

metropolis in 1879—straining the water supply system with its unrelenting growth. The other looks south—to the future—showing both the path of the New Croton Aqueduct tunnel and the then-planned location (later abandoned) of “the most massive

published the New Croton Aqueduct tunnel was three years away from completion and the dam was still in the planning stages. 2 The narrow part of the Croton, where today’s Quaker Bridge crosses the river, was one of several…

…It was a stunning achievement for the time.” 1 The map is so detailed that it shows all three major components of the Old Croton Aqueduct in New York City: High

Published March 30, 2013 March 30, 2013

Scientific American Published August 31, 2013 August 31, 2013

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puzzle companies of the Victorian era and sold several “sliced” puzzle sets, including Sliced Animals and Sliced Birds. The series was popular enough that it was copied by another company, resulting in an 1883 trademark infringement lawsuit ( Selchow

v. Baker ), which Selchow won. In 1880 John Righter became a partner and the company name was changed to Selchow & Righter. The firm remained a top game and puzzle company into the twentieth century, remembered by aficionados for Parcheesi, Scrabble

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This map and graph were published in the May 23, 1908 issue of Scientific American . They show the locations of the different reservoirs within the Croton watershed after the New Croton Dam was completed and their relative elevations. Click the…

and Trivial Pursuit. Many thanks to Etsy seller paintedpony99 for permission to use the box image. Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in…

the wooden bridge built under the aqueduct arch sometime after 1839. From F.B. Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843. Detail of the wooden bridge that originally carried local traffic under the arch. F…

Click on the images to enlarge them. November 1877 ad These two nineteenth century puzzles, showing the Old Croton Dam and High Bridge, were part of a set called Sliced Objects, published by E. G. Selchow & Co., circa 1867 to…

in a box (shown below) along with puzzles of other New York landmarks—the Bethesda Fountain, St. Paul’s Church, the statue of Washington in Union Square—and puzzles for coach, yacht, engine and other words. Selchow was one of…

Highland Turnpike Bridge is next and was long-gone by 1884. This bridge was first built circa 1812 as part of the Highland Turnpike, which ran through the Hudson Highlands. Because bridge construction was still primitive in the early 1800s…

tended to wash out due to severe storms or spring freshets. Indeed, in 1836 the New York Legislature reported that “the bridge over the Croton river upon [the Highland Turnpike] has been entirely carried away.” High Bridge , the covered bridge…

“Wagon Bridge” in 1898. New York State eventually removed the old span, replacing it with the “Van Cortlandt Bridge” in 1922. This was the main route into Croton for more than 40 year until it was demolished in 1964—despite…

across the bottom from Croton Dam. One of the many interesting things about this map is that the New Croton Dam—then in the planning stages—is shown at the Quaker Bridge location. For more information on the Quaker Bridge…

was definitely there in 1884. The Van Cortlandt Manor Bridge , which spanned the mouth of the river and went up the road where Shoprite is today, had several incarnations and was there when this map was made. “Long Bridge” was…

to enlarge it. Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on…

fascinating aspect of the map is that it shows two bridges across the lower Croton River that didn’t actually exist in 1884, when the map was made. Moving from left to right the bridges shown are: Hudson River Railroad…

of All Dams . . . the Gigantic Structure at Quaker Bridge.” Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens…

was built high above the river, is another ghost bridge on this map. It collapsed in 1879. (Details here ). Quaker Bridge was definitely there in 1884 and would have been dwarfed by the dam behind it, that the New York…

extensive planning—including test borings, cost estimates and structural plans. The site was eventually abandoned in favor of one further up-river, but in 1887 Quaker Bridge was the favored location. For Crotonites the detail showing the bridge is

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