Croton Aqueduct West 119th Street Gatehouse

History and architecture

The Croton Aqueduct West 119th Street Gatehouse was constructed in 1894-95 by contractor Peter J. Moran for the New York City Department of Public Works, under the supervision of George W. Birdsall, chief engineer of the Croton Aqueduct. The small but imposing one-story gatehouse is constructed of rock-faced granite, with round-arched openings with voussoirs and a hipped slate shingle roof. It replaced an older gatehouse for the aqueduct that had been located in the middle of the roadbed of Tenth (Amsterdam) Avenue at West 119th Street on "Asylum Ridge" (so called because of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum).

These gatehouses functioned as the southern connection between the cast-iron inverted siphon pipes, laid beneath the nearly mile-wide Manhattan Valley to the north, and the masonry aqueduct that continued southward. By the 1890s, as the Morningside Heights neighborhood developed, the old gatehouse had become a traffic impediment and was replaced by the existing one located on the east side of the avenue.

The Old Croton Aqueduct (1837-48, John B. Jervis, chief engineer), one of the first major municipal water systems in the United States, was New York City's first significant supply of fresh water. It remained the city's principal source of water until 1890, and supplied the city with water until 1955. The West 119th Street Gatehouse was in operation until 1990.

The (Old) Croton Aqueduct

Until the mid-nineteenth century, New York City did not have an adequate and reliable source of fresh water. Citizens were forced to subsist on water from the Collect pond, various wells and pumps, and cisterns. But the serious pollution of these water sources, which were sometimes linked with diseases and epidemics, along with general civic filth and periodic fires exacerbated by lack of water, posed major problems. These were especially aggravated by the rapid growth of the population.

Manhattan island, moreover, is located amidst saltwater estuaries, presenting substantial obstacles to bringing in potable water. As early as 1798, several plans were advanced to divert water from the Bronx River to Manhattan, but these were not implemented. After decades of discussion, an independent Water Commission was authorized by the state legislature in 1834 to plan and construct a water system. The city finally obtained a supply of fresh water in 1842 through the gravity-fed Croton Aqueduct, which was begun in 1837 and completed in 1848.

An innovative engineering achievement, an outstanding (if expensive) public works project, and one of the first major municipal water systems in the United States, the Croton Aqueduct was planned under chief engineer David B. Douglass, the leading proponent of the Croton River as water source, but built under chief engineer John B. Jervis.

Water emanating from the Croton River and Reservoir in Westchester County, N.Y., traveled through an embanked tunnel, to the Harlem River. The High Bridge (1838-48, Jervis),2 a significant engineering feat, was constructed to carry the water over the river. South of 151st Street, the aqueduct followed the course of the future Tenth Avenue to108th Street, then proceeded to a receiving reservoir in what later became Central Park and also supplied a distributing reservoir at Fifth Avenue and West 42" Street.

Two valleys, Clendenning and Manhattan, were, like the Harlem River, obstacles that necessitated special engineering solutions, since the natural flow of the water was disrupted by drops in elevation at both locations. At Clendenning Valley, between West 95th and 102nd Streets, a 1,900-foot-long earth-and-masonry embankment was constructed to carry the aqueduct. It was pierced by three arches to allow streets to pass through it.

Manhattan Valley was 4,180 feet wide and 105 feet below the aqueduct's grade. Instead of an embankment or viaduct, it was decided to employ an underground "inverted siphon" with two 36-inch cast-iron mains. "At the lowest point [of the inverted siphon], the water is under maximum pressure which, in effect, forces it up the other side... and back into the open channel of the Aqueduct."' Gatehouses for the aqueduct were located in the middle of the roadbed of Tenth (Amsterdam) Avenue at West 142" Street and West 134th-135th Streets at the north end of Manhattan Valley, and at West 119th Street at the south end.

The latter gatehouse on "Asylum Ridge" (so called because of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, located since 1821 between West 113th and 120th Streets) functioned as the southern connection between the cast-iron pipes and the masonry aqueduct that continued southward. These gatehouses were planned to accommodate two additional pipes for eventual system expansion.