Literature Relating to Staten Island 39 



Catskill Water Supply* 



From whence, exactly, do we get our present main water supply 

 on Staten Island, and how is it delivered to us? Many official 

 reports, popular articles and newspaper accounts dealing with 

 this subject have been published during the past decade ; but none 

 contains clearer and more concise descriptions, more complete 

 .statistical data, and better selected illustrations than may be found 

 included in this neatly printed, well illustrated, and popularly 

 written pamphlet. 



The course of the water may be traced on the map through 

 portions of ten counties, from the Schoharie drainage basin, 120 

 miles distant from us to the Ashokan reservoir, and thence by the 

 great aqueduct to its terminus in the Silver Lake reservoir. The 

 elevation of the former is 590 fet above tide level and that of the 

 latter 228 feet. The water, therefore, comes to us by gravity, and 

 it takes about three days to make the journey, passing in its 

 travels four times beneath the lower Hudson River and its con- 

 fluences : the Harlem River, the East River, and New York Bay. 



The illustrations of local interest are (p. 6) a view of Silver 

 Lake reservoir, filled with water, looking south from the north- 

 east end; (p. 12) sections of the north dike and basin and south 

 dike and basin of the same reservoir; (p. 64) sectional view, 

 showing the method of laying the connecting siphon from Long 

 Island to Staten Island under the waters of New York Bay. 



In brief, this is an interesting little municipal handbook of in- 

 formation, containing facts and figures with which every citizen 

 of Greater New York should be familiar as a matter of civic 

 pride, if for no other reason. 



A. H. 



* Catskill Water Supply | A General Description | and ] Brief History | 

 Board of Water Supply | of the City of New York | October, 1918. Pamph. 

 8°, 67 p. plates, figures, diagrams and maps, 70 -\-. 



