of the ground vary much. The greatest impediments are occasioned by the numerous ravines which intersect the line of the canal. Över all these, aqueducts must be constructed. The level may thus be preserved upwards of six miles, or within two miles of the City; there it descends so much, that unless higher ground can be found, it will again be necessary to have recourse to iron cylinders to convey the water into the Grand Reservoir, which may either be placed in the Park,* or a vacant piece of ground to the northward of the Hospital, either of which are sufficiently elevated to distribute the water through all parts of the City. The total distance from the Bronx to the Park is 14 miles, 7 furlongs, and the descent twenty-three feet. It is to be observed that the principal object of this survey being to ascertain the practicability of the plan, and neither my time nor the season permitting that minute investigations which is necessary to be made, previous to the commencement of any operations, there is a probability that advantageous deviations may be made from the route pursued.

Although the form and dimensions of the reservoir are objects of importance, it is now premature to point the particular mode. of construction I would recommend to be adopted. Yet it may not be improper to give a general outline thereof, as perhaps it may tend to remove many of the prejudices which have been entertained against the supposed impurities of the waters of the Bronx. It is proposed to divide the reservoir into three parts, two of which will again be subdivided, each of these minor divisions capable of containing a daily supply of water. The first division, or reservoir of reception will contain the water as immediately delivered by the cylinder of discharge. While one of its subdivisions is filling, the other, in a quiescent state, will be depositing the adventitious matter, with which the water may be intermixed. After so remaining twenty-four hours, it will be drawn off by an aperture near the bottom, (so as to prevent any bouyant particles from entering,) into the reservoir of filtration, where it will still further purify itself, by gradually depositing the remaining sediment, until it is finally received into the reservoir of distribution, after percolating through a bank of washed sand and gravel, in imitation of that natural process to which all water owes its purification. This last reservoir it is proposed to arch over, so as to preserve the water pure and cool; from hence it will be distributed, in separate and distinct pipes, through every part of the City.

The water destined to cleanse and cool the streets may be taken immediately from the reservoir of reception, as I conceive it is not necessary that it should be very pure.

*Present City Hall Park.

IV

THE MANHATTAN COMPANY'S WATER WORKS

The first successful pipe-line system of waterworks was that of the Manhattan Company, which was incorporated in 1799. Upon the assembling of the Legislature that year, Aaron Burr and several other men applied for a charter for the purpose of "supplying the City of New York with pure and wholesome water ", and on April 2, 1799, the bill was passed, incorporating the Manhattan Company. The capital of the corporation was $2,000,000— a great sum for those days - and as the cost of the proposed water system could not accurately be foreseen, there was a clause in the charter permitting the company to employ its surplus capital in financial transactions not inconsistent with the constitutions and laws of the State of New York and the United States.

It has been a common tradition that the banking privilege contained in this charter, apparently as a subordinate feature, was really the main object of the projectors, and was thus introduced covertly to avoid the opposition which Burr was certain to encounter from Alexander Hamilton and the Federal party. Hamilton had organized the first banking organization in New York when in 1784 he formed the Bank of New York which was chartered in 1792. For fifteen years, Hamilton's bank and the Branch Bank of the United States were the only banks doing business in the city and State of New York. This monopoly was of value to the political party which was then in control and with which Hamilton was allied, and consequently Burr's effort to obtain a charter, which was quickly perceived to contain a clause which permitted banking, was earnestly opposed. The opposition was unsuccessful, however, and the Manhattan Company secured its charter.

Whether the tradition before mentioned as to the leading motive of Burr and associates was well founded or not, the fact remains that the Company did go ahead with the water-works undertaking. built reservoirs, and laid an extensive system of distributing pipes in the then small city. These pipes were hollow logs, many of which have been dug up in recent years in the streets south of Chambers street. The first meeting of the Directors was held at

the house of Edward Barden, inn-keeper,* on April 11, 1799, when there were present Aaron Burr, John Broome, who was long an Alderman; John B. Church, who fought a duel with Burr on September 2, 1799; John B. Coles, Richard Harrison, who was Recorder of the City; William Laight, Brockholst Livingston, Daniel Ludlow, Samuel Osgood, Pascal N. Smith, John Stevens and John Watts. The only absentee was William Edgar. Mr. Ludlow was elected President.

At the meeting of April 11, 1799, a resolution was adopted declaring that the principal object of the corporation was to obtain a supply of pure and wholesome water for the city and a committee was appointed to report means for obtaining such a supply. So rapidly did the plans mature that on May 6 following the water committee was empowered "to contract for as many pine logs as they may think necessary for pipes and also for boring the same.'

Meanwhile, if the water supply was the chief object of the company, the banking privilege was not neglected, and on April 17, 1799, a committee was appointed "to consider the most proper means of employing the capital of the Company". On June 3 the committee reported in favor of opening an office of discount and deposit and a house was bought on the site of the present No. 40 Wall street (then having a different number), in which, on September 1, 1799, the bank of the Company began business. This venerable corporation is still doing business at No. 40 Wall street under the style of the Bank of the Manhattan Company.

In prosecuting the water-works business, the company sank a number of wells, built tanks and reservoirs, and extended its distributing system generally throughout the city below Chambers street. In 1836 the system was extended northward along Broadway as far as Bleecker street, when the company had about 25 miles of mains and supplied about 2,000 houses. The company continued to operate its system until about the time the Croton system came into use in 1842.

One conspicuous landmark of the old water works was the Chambers Street reservoir. It had sloping walls, similar in style to the Croton reservoir which formerly stood on the site of the present Public Library on the west side of Fifth avenue between 40th and 42d streets. It stood on the north side of Chambers The Merchants Coffee House.

street between Broadway and Park Row. Its facade was unrelieved except by an entablature which was supported by four Doric columns and upon which was a figure of "Oceanus, one of the sea-gods, sitting in a reclining posture on a rising ground pouring water from an urn which forms a river and terminates in a lake." This was the physical embodiment of the device of the corporation seal of the company adopted May 8, 1799.

Another landmark of the company was the tank which stood on the northwest corner of Reade and Center streets until July, 1914. when it was demolished. This tank, which was erected over one of the earliest wells of the company, was circular in form and meas ured 41 feet in diameter. It consisted of a massive stone foundation rising 23 feet above the original ground level, and was surmounted by a circular tank, 41 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, the sides and bottom of which were composed of iron plates bolted together. Later the reservoir was enclosed in a building consisting of three stories and cellar which was owned by the company. We will describe the reservoir with reference to the stories of this building.

The stone foundation of the reservoir consisted mainly of a circular central column of a solid masonry 10 feet in diameter, and a circular outer wall 4 feet thick. The inner space, 111% feet wide between the central pier and the outer wall, was divided into eight symmetrical segments by radial partition walls, 3 feet thick. perforated next to the central pier by arched passage ways 4 feet 6 inches wide and about 17 feet high. On the ground level (in the cellar of the surrounding building) the outer wall of the foundation of the reservoir was penetrated by four arched doorways, about 31⁄2 feet wide and 6 feet high, equidistant, and located adjacent to the alternate radial partitions.

The lowest 10 feet of the foundation was in the cellar of the surrounding building, the first floor at the modern street level being 10 feet above the old cellar ground level. The next 10 feet of the foundation was included in the first story of the surrounding building. At the first floor level was one doorway 311⁄2 feet wide, 6 feet high, with flat lintel, apparently not contemplated in the original plan. The wooden flooring had been extended into the interior of the foundation and was used, as was the space below, for storage purposes. Each of the other seven sections of

the circular wall above this floor level was pierced by a circular opening about 2 feet in diameter and lined with brick. These circular openings were about 5 feet above the floor or 15 feet from the ground. The archways in the interior partition walls were 7 feet above the floor or 17 feet from the ground.

Above these archways there was about 6 feet of solid masonry from center to circumference. Upon this was a thin layer of sand, to equalize the superincumbent weight, and upon the sand were laid the bottom plates of the reservoir.

The upper 3 feet of the foundation and the lower 7 feet of the iron tank appeared in the second story of the surrounding building. The upper 8 feet of the tank appeared in the third story, there being just room enough between the top of the tank and the roof timbers of the building to permit a person to look into the tank..

The bottom of the tank consisted of flat rhomboidal segments of iron plates, bolted together at their flanges. (See illustrations in our 1915 Report.) The cylindrical side consisted of three tiers of rectangular iron plates, 5 feet high, 2 feet 4 inches wide, slightly curved, and similarly bolted together by their raised flanges. At the flanges the plates were 3 inches thick. The design of each plate was divided into 2 panels. In the illustration in our 1915 Report two rectangles, one above the other, represent one iron plate. A projecting hook in the center of each plate indicated that each tier of plates was reinforced by a circular band of iron. When the tank was taken down in July, 1914, the black sediment on the bottom of the reservoir the accumulation of dust which had slowly settled in the tank notwithstanding it was surrounded and covered by the building was about 1 foot thick.

Connected with the tank were certain inflow and outflow pipes of no particular interest. Water was originally pumped into the reservoir by means of a steam engine.

Among the traditions which grew up around the old reservoir was one to the effect that the Manhattan Company was obliged to pump water into the tank every day in order to keep alive its charter. As the reservoir is now gone and the company continues to do business, the tradition appears to be effectually set at rest.

During its later history, while this tank was enclosed in the three-story building its existence was known only to antiquarians