558 



NEW YOKK (CITY). 



Lane, Spencer, and Dowd at $8,000 per annum. 

 The principal work of the commissioners dur- 

 ing 1883 included the hearing and considera- 

 tion of plans and specifications with regard to 

 the work about to be undertaken. The ex- 

 penditures of the commission at the close of 

 that year amounted to $22,747.90. On De- 

 cember 30 Commissioner George W. Lane died 

 suddenly. The vacancy was filled by the ap- 

 poiutment of Christopher C. Baldwin, who en- 

 tered upon his duties Jan. 9, 1884. On the 

 23d of January the engineer corps for the 

 uqueduct, as recommended by the chief en- 

 gineer, was organized, including the following 

 namfis: Alphonse Fteley, Principal Assistant 

 and Executive Engineer; Henry S. Craven, 

 Engineer of Construction; Edward Wegmann, 

 Jr., and Frederick W. Watkins, Assistant En- 

 gineers of Construction; Frederick S. Cook, 

 Assistant Engineer in charge of the Draught- 

 ing Department; Caesar Leonhard. Assistant 

 Draughtsman ; and Henry M. Patterson, Chief 

 Clerk. Joseph Davis was appointed Consult- 

 ing Engineer. On Aug. 24, 1884, the Supreme 

 Court appointed E. Ellery Anderson, Henry 

 F. Spaulding, and Robert Murray, Commis- 

 sioners of Appraisal for property taken for 

 aqueduct purposes within the city and county 

 of New York. On Dec. 3, 1884, the aqueduct 

 work was divided into six divisions, each di- 

 vision in charge of a division engineer, as fol- 

 lows: the first division, commencing at Croton 

 Dam, in charge of Charles S. Gowen; the sec- 

 ond division, commencing near Sing Sing and 

 extending southerly, John B. Mclntyre; the 

 third division, commencing near Tarrytown 

 and running south, J. M. Wolbrecht; the fourth 

 division, commencing near Irvington, Alfred 

 Craven ; the fifth division, commencing north 

 of Yonkers, E. Sherman Gould ; and the sixth 

 division, including the Twenty-fourth Ward of 

 the city of New York, in charge of Frederick 

 W. Watkins. Bids for the construction of each 

 section of the aqueduct from Harlem river to 

 the Croton Dam were publicly opened and an- 

 nounced. The work was divided between the 

 following contractors: Heman Clark, O'Brien 

 & Clark, and Brown, Howard & Co. The 

 expenditures for the purposes of the aqueduct 

 commissioners during 1884 amounted to $185,- 

 730.63. 



On Jan. 7, 1885, William R. Grace, Mayor, 

 and Rollin M. Squire, Commissioner of Public 

 Works, became aqueduct commissioners, in 

 place of Franklin Edson, late Mayor, and Hu- 

 bert O. Thompson, late Commissioner of Pub- 

 lic Works, and William R. Grace, Mayor, was 

 elected President of the Commission. During 

 1885 and 1886 the work was laid out and al- 

 lotted, and decisions reached on plans and 

 specifications, notably in regard to the Sodom 

 and Muscoot dams; also the plan of a siphon 

 tunnel under the Harlem river was adopted, 

 and the construction of the same ordered to 

 be made. The expenditures on account ot 

 the aqueduct for 1885 amounted to $2,265,- 



147.58. On Jan. 28, 1836, resolutions were 

 adopted fixing the southern terminus of the 

 new aqueduct at the northern side of the Cen- 

 tral Park Reservior, and the Commissioner 

 of Public Works was requested to prepare and 

 submit plans for a gate-house at 135th Street 

 and Convent Avenue, and one at the northern 

 side of Central Park Reservoir, and for a pipe- 

 line between said gate-houses. On May 5, 

 1886, the reservoir previously known as the 

 " Sodom Dam and Reservoir " was ordered to 

 be named and thereafter known as " The East 

 Branch Reservoir," and the following resolu- 

 tion was adopted in regard to the southern ter- 

 minus of the new aqueduct : 



Resolved, That the point in the city of New York to 

 which an additional supply of water shall be brought 

 under the direction of this commission be, and the 

 same is hereby fixed, at a point on tiie northerly side 

 of the reservoir in Central Park (known as the " New 

 Eeservoir"), and adjacent thereto ; which point is 

 herebv located as the southern terminus of the " New 

 Aqueduct." 



On May 17, 1886, a certified copy of an act 

 (Chap. 337 of the Laws of 1886) amending the 

 act of 1883, under which the commissioners 

 exercised their powers, was received by the 

 commissioners from the Secretary of State, by 

 which amending act Oliver W. Barnes, Edgar 

 L. Ridgway, and Hamilton Fish, Jr., were ap- 

 pointed commissioners, while the Mayor and 

 Comptroller of the city of New York, under 

 this amendment, ceased to be commissioners, 

 and the annual salaries of the commissioners 

 were reduced from $8,000 to $5,000. Com- 

 missioner James C. Spencer was then unani- 

 mously elected President of the Commission, 

 to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of 

 the Mayor, and has since been annually elected 

 as such president. 



On July 21, 1886, the commissioners deter- 

 mined to divide the work on the line of the 

 new aqueduct into two districts, to be known 

 as the northern and southern districts, and 

 five divisions, to be numbered from one to five 

 respectively, each district to be intrusted to a 

 principal and assistant engineer, and each di- 

 vision to a division and assistant engineer. On 

 July 28, 1886, John C. Sheehan was appointed 

 Secretary of the Commission in the place of 

 James W. McCulloch, the latter being ap- 

 pointed special assistant to the chief engineer. 

 The expenditures of the aqueduct commission- 

 ers during the year 1886 amounted to $5,029,- 

 684.21, and the total expenditures from Aug. 

 8, 1883, to Dec. 31, 1886, amounted to $7,503,- 

 310.32. 



The committee appointed by the Senate in 

 1883, in connection with the portions of their 

 report which formed the basis of the principal 

 proceedings toward the construction of the 

 new aqueduct, included in that report the fol- 

 lowing statement of their views, and the causes 

 which induced them: "The statistics of rain- 

 fall in the Croton water-shed, in connection 

 with the ascertained fall of the river at Croton 

 Dam, show that this water-shed is capable of 



