What's Left of New York's Lost Reservoir?

the Lost Croton Reservoir in New York City was once a towering structure that held the city's water supply it was the heart of New York's water system providing fresh drinking water to the rapidly growing Metropolis in the 19th century but where is it now you see as time passed the city continued to expand in the once magnificent structure proved to be insufficient and was ultimately demolished its existence is now all but forgotten yet archaeological elements do remain today we discover New York's lost Reservoir I'm your host Ryan sokash and you're watching it's history foreign it's difficult to overstate what a significant engineering Marvel the Croton Distributing Reservoir was even In 1832 the New York Daily Herald exclaimed that quote the line of this Distributing Reservoir will cut the cupola of City Hall and therefore the water can be thrown in the city at that height and this means the system enabled upward growth in the skyscrapers to appear later that Century but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet to understand how New York ended up with this massive Reservoir we first need to know how the city developed its Water Works a process that required many innovations that could stand as Marvels in their own right New York's earliest forms of Waterworks date back to the Colonial period when the city was still known as New Amsterdam in those days the city's growing population relied on a network of wells and springs for their water supply however as the city expanded and its population grew it became evident that a more reliable and efficient water supply was needed hence the first significant attempt to address this issue came in the late 17th century when a privately owned company was established to bring fresh water from a spring in today's Harlem to the growing city the project was a success and was the foundation of the city's very first Water Works over the next hundred years the city continued to expand and several other Waterworks were built including the collection Pond the city's largest source of fresh water in the area back then nowadays it's hard to believe that this was the location of fresh water in New York City you see the collection Pond Park has recently been considered one of the least appealing public spaces in downtown New York the park is sparsely equipped with just a few benches and trees and it's surrounded by damaged concrete yet despite its current state the park sits atop one of New York's most important sources of fresh water before the American Revolution collection Pond was also used for Steamboat experiments in 1796 but it was not to last you see in the early 1800s New York City encroached on the collection Pond by this time the pond had already been surrounded by breweries tanneries and slaughterhouses which had caused it to become an open sewer in response the decision was made to drain and fill the pond in the 1810s a canal was constructed to assist with the draining process and Canal Street was later built on top of it so you might even say that New York had destroyed its own source of water in a more scalable Supply was needed in the early 19th century the city began constructing the Croton Aqueduct one of its most significant engineering projects and a story we've covered in previous videos the aqueduct brought fresh water from the Croton River in Westchester County to New York City it was a significant step forward in the city's quest for a reliable water supply the Croton Aqueduct was an important milestone own in New York's Waterworks and paved the way for the constructing of the city's first significant system the growth of this new system was vast as networks of pipes and reservoirs brought fresh water to the city's growing population and provided the foundation for the city's modern Water Works now as for the focus of our story The Croton Distributing Reservoir also known as the Murray Hill Reservoir existed within this new system the reservoir would be built on Fifth Avenue a street we associate with the full Splendor of New York City which was not exactly the case back then an interesting thought to consider is that when New York installed the first modern Waterworks it also unintentionally introduced new vulnerability in turn the city needed to devise new ways to protect its citizens from tainted water which was a much harder task when considering how centralized everything had become perhaps the best thing I can compare this to in our world is the newness of the internet being so centralized to everything we do and how if left arm protected we can really pay the price that's why I use surfshark a virtual private Network and sponsor of this video surfsharkvpn keeps your online identity safe by encrypting all the information sent between your device and the internet this keeps your personal data protected from big companies or cyber criminals but there's another Advantage VPN swaps the actual location of your device with a new one AKA changing your IP address this way you can virtually travel to any country around the globe surfshark has 3200 plus servers in 100 countries and is a fantastic way to bypass censorship everywhere the service liberates your internet by unblocking blocked websites and bypassing Geo restrictions so sign up by clicking the link in the description and use our code it's history to get 83 percent off in three months free so shark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so there's no risk in trying it out even by the early part of the 20th century 5th Avenue was known as The Avenue of allies New York's most incredible Pride emphasizing the commercial and artistic importance of the area through graphic exhibits and demonstrations of Applied Arts which in turn makes New York the art and fashion center of the world yet in 1820 before construction began the New York Herald remarked that Fifth Avenue was a marsh Wasteland Meadow and hill during the first quarter of the 19th century the line which the Avenue now follows quote wandered over a picturesque Countryside where trout mink otter and muskrats swam in the Brooks and ponds old newspaper sources suggest that the land which became Reservoir Square was a Potter's field or in other words peasants grave the site accommodated excess when the graveyard in Washington Square Park had reached its capacity between 1822 and 8 1825 from there the land was taken for the construction of the reservoir and renamed Reservoir Square in the grand scheme of time city land changes hands and redevelops so often that settling a permanent identity for any given location is challenging Reservoir Square being no exception to that rule would later be renamed in 1884 to honor the poet and New York Evening Post editor William Bryant this type of evolution was extremely typical to the entire vicinity of Fifth Avenue for example there's another fascinating Claim by the New York Herald article from 1920 reading in 1670 Sir Edmund Anders then Governor granted Solomon Peters a freed person of color 30 Acres between 21st and 26th streets and Broadway and 7th Avenue his descendants sold this land in 1716 to John Horn and Cornelius Weber who established the horn farmhouse which stood in the center of what ultimately became Fifth Avenue The Farmhouse was initially moved to the street corner where it became known as the Madison Cottage proving to be a popular Resort until it was ultimately demolished to make way for the Hippodrome in 1853 the fifth avenue hotel would replace the Hippodrome a few years later standing until 1908. so by the 1820s old New York families pushed northward from Bowling Green wall and Broad Street where they leveled the land to establish their Estates from the start the upper part of Fifth Avenue was where the city's most magnificent Mansions were built a muddy little dirt road that ran alongside a bog became one of the most coveted streets in America and New York City's water would be safe housed there construction of the reservoir was a massive undertaking as a first matter of order the entire graveyard occupying the site needed to be excavated in 1840 the deceased were relocated towards Island where they would be moved once again to Hart Island a few years later James Renwick was chosen to design the Croton Reservoir Distributing Center he was a renowned architect of his day known for iconic structures such as St Patrick's Cathedral Grace Church and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington he chose the Egyptian Revival style giving the burgeoning city a historical appearance this style was popular and used for the original tombs of Prisons near the downtown area the Croton Reservoir was called the Croton Distributing Reservoir or simply Croton Reservoir in most guidebooks of the era sharing its name with the more extensive 400 acre Croton reservoir located to the north of the city the reservoir's imposing walls and Main Gate were open to the public allowing people to strike role and view the city's Skyline the few once extended as far as the Palisades in New Jersey and The Trinity Church's steeple at Wall Street but as the city grew the views became less impressive in 1853 The ladding Observatory Tower was built with a much better view of the city but staying true to our point this job required Excavating millions of cubic yards of Earth and using cutting-edge engineering techniques the reservoir was built to be a massive above ground structure with towering walls and a large Central Basin that could hold millions of gallons of water once completed the reservoir was a Marvel of engineering providing residents with a secure and ample fresh water supply it was also a source of Pride for the town drawing in visitors worldwide to admire its Grandeur and the city's technological advances this was unlike anything the city had seen before the completed structure was an imposing Masterpiece that's not to mention the aqueduct constructed to fill this Reservoir needed 2 million bricks for every mile of the structure and now when it comes to the Croton aqueduct in 1839 the accepted estimation was that the project would require nearly 100 million bricks in October of 1868 the Springville Journal proclaimed that the Fifth Avenue Croton Distributing Reservoir collecting water from its 40 and a half mile long Aqueduct delivered 60 million gallons in 24 hours the reservoir storage capacity was 20 million gallons and the construction of the serving Aqueduct cost nine million dollars to build the city boasted that every man woman and child in town could Now consume five gallons of water daily and that the aqueduct was sufficient to support a future population of 10 million or more in Manhattan the popularity of the reservoir is a tourist attraction only grew when New York hosted the World's Fair the 1853 exhibition of Industry of all Nations the fair was next to the Croton Reservoir and had a glass and steel Pavilion the New York Crystal Palace inspired by London's 1851 great exhibition's centerpiece The Pavilion showcased inventions and unique aspects of the country the fair brought a tourist boom to the city but the building lacked fireproofing and was lost on October the 5th 1858 as New York city grew northward a second Distributing Reservoir was constructed in Central Park in 1877. despite a state bill approved in 1881 to demolish the Croton Reservoir it was preserved due to occasional droughts for another 20 years over time Vines covered its walls enhancing its already aged appearance as previously mentioned Reservoir Square was renamed named Bryant Park in 1884 a move that many suspected was made with the prior knowledge that the reservoir would indeed be demolished this notion was confirmed in 1897 when two resolutions of the city's Board of estimate approved its removal and the construction of New York's Public Library this building occupies the site until modern day and unlike some of the other lost New York architecture we've covered here the public was happy to see the reservoir go the New York Times documented the shift in perception of the former crown of Murray Hill as it went from being seen as a beautiful location to a colossal eyesore so in 1896 the proposal for New York Public Library was put forth for the site which would be even more grandiose than the reservoir itself this building was intended to compete with the great libraries in the old cities of the World by the year 1900 proponents of the library celebrated the removal of the outdated Reservoir in 1911 the main branch of the building was finished containing over a million books on 75 miles of shelves and within that Library even today parts of the reservoir remain the bozar style Library building features architectural elements inspired by ancient Rome and in an inaccessible area not visible to the public some of the original bricks from the reservoir rediscovered during a construction process they had been left in place and hidden for nearly a hundred years now to some people old bricks don't mean a whole lot but I think this is amazing the Croton Distributing Reservoir played a pivotal role in shaping the development of New York City serving as a source of fresh water before being demolished to make way for the iconic New York Public Library the legacy of the reservoir still exists today with the remnants of the structure still visible within the library's South Court the story of the Croton Reservoir serves as a reminder of the city's Rich history and the impact of its infrastructure projects and just how they affect Urban Development and that'll do it for this episode please keep this story Alive by sharing the video support the channel by clicking subscribe and if you'd like to see commercial free versions of its history click that join button and I'll see you in the members area until next time this is Ryan silkash signing off

Channel: IT'S HISTORY

Views: 433,820

Keywords: new croton reservoir, croton resevoir, croton, croton dam, reservoir, wachusett reservoir, croton aqueduct, reservoir square, croton river, yorkville reservoir, murray hill reservoir, and delaware reservoirs, croton fountain, croton gorge park, croton aqueduct trail, reservoir (geographical feature category), new croton dam, croton harmon, old croton aqueduct, #crotonreservoir, historic preservation, tourist attraction, old structures engineering, travel destination

Id: ZYfsic9kwNM

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2023