New Croton Dam Construction (1892–1906)

The contract drawing for the Cornell Site reveals 'buildings, bridges and roads behind the dam which were destroyed when the valley was flooded.' Construction begins.

Italian immigrant laborers help build the new dam. The retrospective local history Water Over the Dam describes labor brokers managing recruitment, lodging and deductions from wages.

Skilled blacksmiths run forges constantly. An October 1896 Scientific American engraving documents the excavation with 'noteworthy accuracy.'

Housing and businesses grow around the construction work. Later local accounts describe the settlement and its relationship to the dam workforce.

Contemporary newspapers describe troops guarding the works, the fatal shooting of Sergeant Robert Douglass on April 16, and a subsequent roundup. The shooting reports do not identify his killer.

The later local account records a final-stone ceremony. This is a construction milestone; DEP dates the New Croton Reservoir’s entry into service to 1905.

Higgins’s local history, prepared in 1938 and published in 1940, describes the decline of the construction settlement after the dam work. The reservoir extends about nine miles, according to DEP.