THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



31 



To build the Catskill Aqueduct, a vast 

 army of workmen had to be assembled. 

 Construction days reminded one of Pan- 

 ama. The men were well cared for; 

 schools, gardens, recreation centers — 

 everything necessary to make them happy 

 and contented — were provided, with the 

 result that there was not a strike from 

 the inception of the work to the day of 

 its completion. Furthermore, the im- 

 mense task was completed nearly a year 

 ahead of time and for seven million dol- 

 lars less than cost estimates. 



Let us have a look at the big water- 

 way, starting at Ashokan Reservoir and 

 following it down to the end — Silver 

 Lake, Staten Island, 119 miles away. 



The first consideration was the geology 

 of the region. In the Devonian Period 

 of Paleozoic times, estimated at some 

 forty million years ago, all interior New 

 York State was under the sea that sub- 

 merged most of the continent. Gradually 

 the winds and the rains wore down the 

 outcropping heights, and the waters car- 

 ried the resulting sands away, depositing 

 them on the floor and shore of the sea. 

 Then there came a rising of the land from 

 the sea, and the winds and the rains again 

 began their long, tedious, but tremendous 

 work of earth sculpture. 



Glaciers began to plow their way to- 

 ward the sea, too, like huge jack-planes, 

 and when they passed through the Esopus 

 region they cut a way for the draining of 

 a beautiful preglacial lake. Thereafter 

 Esopus Creek flowed down to the Hud- 

 son. 



When New York City looked over all 

 available water supplies, Esopus Valley, 

 about eleven miles northwest of King- 

 ston, was thought to rank first, and was 

 selected. A great dam thrown across this 

 valley would impound the waters of 

 Esopus Creek, restore the lake that had 

 been destroyed millions of years before 

 man looked upon the earth, and give New 

 York a great source of potable water. 



the: gigantic ashokan reservoir 



And so the building of Ashokan Reser- 

 voir began. It was to be a body of water 

 12 miles long, having an average width 

 of a mile and a shore-line 40 miles long. 

 Its average depth was to be 50 feet, with 

 a maximum of 190 feet. It was to hold 



enough water to cover Manhattan Island 

 30 feet deep — enough to furnish the 

 whole population of the United States 

 with its drinking water, omitting deduc- 

 tions for evaporation and seepage, for a 

 period of ten years ! 



To impound all this water there had to 

 be a dam built higher than the one at 

 Gatun on the Panama Canal, with sev- 

 eral dikes across saddles or gaps where 

 the lake would have broken through the 

 sides of the valley. But that was not all. 

 Thirty- two cemeteries, containing 2,800 

 graves, had to be removed, 11 miles of 

 railroad had to be relocated, 64 miles of 

 roads had to be discontinued, and 10 

 miles of macadam road built. 



The big dam is 240 feet high, as com- 

 pared with 105 feet for the Gatun Dam 

 at Panama. At its base it is 190 feet 

 thick. It is 1,000 feet long and is made 

 of tremendous boulders imbedded in con- 

 crete. 



When the waters began to rise, it soon 

 became evident that not only had a won- 

 derfully utilitarian reservoir been con- 

 structed, but that it was also a superbly 

 beautiful lake, a gem like Como or Mag- 

 giore. Landscape gardening has added 

 to the beauties of the natural situation. 

 A ten-thousand acre lake bordered by a 

 five-thousand acre sanitary zone, Asho- 

 kan is as much a delight to the eye as its 

 waters are a joy to thirsty millions of 

 men. 



But Esopus Creek will never be able 

 to keep Ashokan Reservoir full, for al- 

 though a single inch of rainfall means 

 113 tons of water to every acre, Esopus 

 watershed is far too small for New 

 York's water demands. So provision has 

 been made for the damming of Schoharie 

 Creek and the construction of an 18-mile 

 tunnel under a mountain. This creek 

 will cease to flow north into the Mohawk, 

 and will be made to flow south into New 

 York's watermains. Also, a Schoharie 

 Reservoir will be built, big enough to 

 store one-sixth as much water as Asho- 

 kan. 



THE WATER'S AIR BATH 



One of the sights at Ashokan is the 

 aeration plant. A bed as long as a city 

 block and half as wide is covered with 

 water pipes four and five feet apart. At 



