ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



381 



VIEW OF THE AQUARIUM AND NEW Yi )RK BAY. 



THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 



Maintained hy the City, Directed by the Ne^Tv York 

 Zoological Society. 



THE AQUARIUM is situated in Battery 

 Park and is reached by all elevated, sur- 

 face and subway lines running to South 

 Ferry. It was founded by the City on De- 

 cember 10, 1896, and on November i, 1902, 

 its management was transferred from the De- 

 partment of Parks to the New York Zoologi- 

 cal Society. 



The Building. The Aquarium building was 

 erected in 1807 by the United States Govern- 

 ment as a fort, called Southwest Battery, and 

 after the war of 1812 was called Castle Clin- 

 ton. In 1823 the building was ceded by 

 Congress to the City of New York and used 

 as a place of amusement called Castle Garden, 

 which had a seating capacity of 6,000. Gen- 

 eral Lafayette was received here in 1824; 

 President Jackson in 1832 ; President Tyler in 

 1843; Louis Kossuth in 185 1. Jenny Lind 

 began singing here in 1850 under the manage- 

 ment of P. T. Barnum. The building was 

 used as a landing place for immigrants from 

 1855 to 1890, during which period 7,690,606 



immigrants passed through its doors. The 

 number of persons who entered the building 

 while it was called Castle Garden must have 

 been very great. As an aquarium the attend- 

 ance has already exceeded 17,000,000. 



Size. The New York Aquarium is one of 

 the largest in the world, and contains a greater 

 number of species and of specimens than any 

 other aquarium. It has 7 large floor pools, 

 94 large wall tanks and 30 smaller tanks. 

 There are also 26 reserve tanks containing 

 specimens not on exhibition. The building is 

 circular in form, with a diameter of 205 feet. 

 The largest pool is ^y feet in diameter and 7 

 feet deep. 



Water Supply and Equipment. The Aqua- 

 rium is equipped for heating sea water for 

 tropical fislies in winter and has a refrigerat- 

 ing plant for cooling fresh water in summer. 

 An air compressor furnishes extra aeration 

 to all tanks when necessary. Flowing 

 fresh water is supplied from the city wa- 

 ter system, while the pumps circulate about 

 300,000 gallons of salt water daily. The 

 pumps run day and night, and the engine- 

 room men work in eight-hour watches. 



