144 
INTRODUCTION. 
the work. Inside of the walls of masonry, a thorough puddled embankment of 
suitable earth is formed, 58 J feet wide at the line of the reservoir bottom, and 
sloping on the inside face li to I per 24 feet high, and making, with the walls on 
top, a width of 17 feet; the face of the banks is lined with a course of rubble 
hydraulic masonry 15 inches thick, and coped with dressing stone. The bottom 
is an impervious hardpan, on which two feet of puddled earth is laid, and this 
covered by 12 inches of hydraulic cement. The reservoir is divided into two 
divisions by a wall of hydraulic masonry ; the wall is 19 feet thick at the bottom, 
61 feet at top water line, and 4 feet at the top. In this wall a waste-weir is placed, 
with a well of two falls, together 52 feet, from which the waste water enters a 
sewer and passes off about one mile to the Hudson. In each division there is a 
waste cock to draw the water from the bottom. The reservoir is designed for 36 
feet of water, and when full, will stand 115 feet above mean tide. The walls rise 
four feet above the water line. An iron railing is to be placed around the walls 
on the top of the cornice. The capacity of this reservoir is 20,000,000 imperial 
gallons. 
The general declivity of the aqueduct is 0-021 foot per hundred, or a fraction 
over 13J inches per mile. The .Croton reservoir, which has received the name 
of Croton lake, is available for 500,000,000 imperial gallons of water, above the 
level that would allow the aqueduct to discharge 35,000,000 gallons per day. 
The flow of the Croton river is about 27,000,000 of gallons in twenty-four hours 
at the lowest stages. The work was commenced in May, 1837, and so far com¬ 
pleted that the water was admitted into the distributing reservoir on the fourth 
of July last. The survey, plans and estimates of the work were made by pro¬ 
fessor Douglass, who was succeeded as chief engineer by John B. Jervis. The 
aqueduct has been constructed at the expense of the city of New-York, under 
the direction and supervision of commissioners appointed by the governor and 
senate. The following persons have been commissioners: Stephen Allen, Walter 
Bowne, Benjamin M. Brown, Saul Alley, Charles Dusenbury, William M. Fox, 
Thomas T. Woodruff and Samuel R. Childs. The present commissioners are. 
