Mr. John Fish at the New Croton Dam, circa 1902 We recently acquired a great set of photographs showing the New Croton Dam under construction. The images are particularly exciting because they include some rare views of the construction site and one

of the soon-to-be submerged Old Croton Dam. Based on the state of completion of the dam we think these were taken circa 1902. 1 The images appear to document a visit to the site by “Mr. John Fish,” who can be seen in several photographs. Who was Mr.

Fish and why was his visit photographed? Why were the photos laboriously labelled on the negatives when a simple inscription on the back of the print or on a scrapbook page would have sufficed? 2 We don’t know. We speculate that Fish may have been

involved in the construction as a subcontractor but so far a search of online and offline sources has turned up nothing. If you have any information please send us an email . The scanned images below have been adjusted in Photoshop to increase

contrast and bring out details. The actual prints are lighter, either due to age, overexposure when the photos were taken or printed—or both. We have cropped and enlarged sections of the images to bring out glorious details. Click the first photo to

enlarge it and then click the arrow icons to cycle through the images. View looking north Close-up of John Fish Detail showing the machine shops below the dam The machine shops below the dam (where the park is today) with the temporary suspension

bridge over the river in the background. The house on the hill was used as the construction office. Detail showing the machine shops Detail showing the suspension bridge Detail showing the house used as the construction office John Fish on the

suspension bridge Looking south at the construction area below the dam Detail showing stones stacked up next to the railroad tracks Detail showing another view of the machine shops Detail showing some construction buildings on the other side of the

river below the dam Other visitors to the dam Detail showing the man higher up the stairs looking through a pair of binoculars Detail showing the railroad tracks through the tunnel, used to bring stone to the face of the dam This photo of the face of

the dam is mislabelled. The retaining wall, built to divert the Croton River during excavation, had been removed by the time these photos were taken. Detail showing stone at the base of the dam A rarely seen view of the area behind the dam during

construction. Large chunks of stone on flat railcars, waiting to be transported through the tunnel to the face of the dam. This is probably the house of Aaron Cornell, along the original bank of the Croton River. The road below the house was called

“the Dugway.” A nice view of the Old Croton Dam and gatehouse, several miles upriver from the New Croton Dam Detail showing the Old Croton Dam gatehouse Detail showing the gentle S-curve design of the Old Croton Dam Many thanks to Tom Tarnowsky,

Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and Carl Oechsner, Croton Friends of History, for their help in analyzing these photographs. ↩︎ The text labels in the photos were added to the negatives in the darkroom so they would appear on every print. To be

readable when the images were printed the labels needed to be written or applied in reverse—a tricky thing to do in a darkroom—which is why some of the letters are incorrectly reversed on the prints. Because the text labels in several of the photos

are cut off it appears these prints were trimmed down, though it could also have been a mistake when the images were printed. None of the prints have inscriptions on the back and the seller was unable to provide any additional information. ↩︎ Share

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in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Cornell Dam Croton River New Croton Dam Old Croton Dam Published August 27, 2015 August 27, 2015