The Water Works Difficulty
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THE WATER WORKS DIFFICULTY.
We observe that Mr. A. W. Craven,1 the Engineer in charge of the Croton Aqueduct,2 N.Y., and Consulting Engineer in the construction of the works for the supply for this city, has published a letter which confirms the opinion we have already expressed, that the difficulties which beset the execution of the further portion of the work are by no means insuperable. In fact, there evidently can be no fear of the permanent interruption of the works, for such a thing was never heard of as a city unable to procure a water supply, on account of the superfluity of water in its vicinity.
Mr. Craven says—
The contract was made originally by Messrs. Welles & Co.,3 with the Nassau Water Company. It was afterwards taken with whatever imperfections it may have (if indeed there by any radical defects) by the citizens of Brooklyn, and Mr. Kirkwood4 was then first employed as engineer to see to its proper execution. In doing this he had to take it as it stood, trusting to the good sense and fairness of both parties to insure the adoption of such modifications as a close examination of the ground and developments in the progress of the work, might prove to be consistent with true economy. Such modifications are moreover provided for by the terms of the contract as originally made and as it now stands.
The contract is believed generally to be a good one, and under it the citizens of Brooklyn can have constructed an efficient and economical work.
It is the part, however, of common sense and strict honesty, that whenever any real and judicious improvement can be made in a work it should be effected, even if it be not in the original plan.
In this view, as well as in every other one connected with his profession, the citizens of Brooklyn could not be in safer hands than those of Mr. Kirkwood.
Notes:
1. Alfred Wingate Craven (1810–1879) was a chief engineer on the Croton Aqueduct Department as well as a founder and the first president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. [back]
2. The Croton Aqueduct was constructed between 1837 and 1842, and it carried water 41 miles from the Croton River to reservoirs in Manhattan. [back]
3. Henry Spalding Welles (1821–1895) was a contractor whose company H. S. Welles & Co. was instrumental in constructing the Brooklyn Water Works. He also contracted railroad lines in both Canada and the United States. [back]
4. James P. Kirkwood (1807–1877), a prominent civil engineer and cofounder of the American Society of Civil Engineers (1852), superintended the construction of the Brooklyn Water Works as chief engineer from 1856 to 1862. After his work in Brooklyn, he moved to St. Louis and designed the waterworks which Walt Whitman's brother Jeff would later help construct. Kirkwood eventually became a nationally known independent consultant and wrote the standard text on water filtration. [back]