Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Published Writings
  3. Periodicals
  4. Journalism
  5. per.00659

Yesterday's Visit Over the Water Works

About This Item

  • Title: Yesterday's Visit Over the Water Works
  • Date: 14 May 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00659
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 14 May 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Jeff Hill Amy Kapp Samantha Gilmore Jason Stacy Kaylen Michaelis Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Yesterday's Visit Over the Water Works." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00659.xml (TEI)
image 1image 2image 3image 4image 5image 6image 7image 8image 9image 10image 11image 12cropped image 1

YESTERDAY'S VISIT OVER THE WATER WORKS.

The party that went out yesterday to examine the Water Works comprised some seventeen carriage loads—among the rest, Mayor Powell,1 Police Commissioners Nye2 and Stranahan,3 the Water Commissioners, Chief Engineer Kirkwood4 of the Brooklyn Works, Craven5of the Croton, Mr. Van Schaick,6 President of the Croton Board, Mr. Adams,7 Chief Engineer of the Sewerage Board, Mr. Herriman,8 President Long Island Bank, Ex-Mayors Wall,9 Berry,10 and Driggs,11 Ex-Senator Cross,12 &c., &c.

The party went merrily on, stopping at various points, examining and discussing the notable parts of the work, and at last reached Hempstead Pond, which is the extremity. The Canal was viewed, and the points of merit and demerit, as between it and the proposed conduit, were gone over.

The visitors found the work progressing finely. At several of the ponds the "mucking" is mostly completed. Very little is being done on the canal, or on the branch canals. The conduit (from Baisely's Pond to East New York,) will be finished in about three months. The time of the completion of the Well Pump cannot be so reliably stated; it is subject to many contingencies.

The direct Reservoir at Ridgewood is expected to be completed in about four months. This time seems to be far too short to any one who has visited Ridgewood lately, and observed the condition everything is in; but we understand that they can easily put on immense numbers of men, and that, from its present condition, a little time will tell greatly in the progress of the work.

Our citizens who have not visited the Brooklyn Water Works, and had a chance of seeing their magnitude and grandeur, would do well to take the earliest opportunity of doing so, as they now are; for in a little while the earth and the water will cover them, and no true idea of them can be obtained by an outsider.

The more they are examined, the nobler do the theory and practical execution of this great undertaking seem—with (as our opinion has already been expressed,) the single exception of the open 7½ miles canal, which, we think, will, if adhered to, be the one serious defect, likely to injure the good name and permanency of the works, until a conduit is built in its place.

Among the talk yesterday through the party, it was mentioned by Mr. Van Shaick that there could be no doubt, after going over the line, about the copious supply of water. Of the Ridgewood Reservoir, in its plan, security, and execution, it was considered one of the best, if not itself the best, in the United States.

We have heard it suggested that one or two popular and cheap excursions over the line would do well. The Construction Committee of the Board of Commissioners, Messrs. Sullivan,13 Wyckoff,14 and Van Voorhis,15 go over the line regularly, as often as once every week.

Notes:

1. Samuel S. Powell (1815–1879) served as mayor of Brooklyn from 1857 to 1861, and then again from 1872 to 1873. In 1863, he was nominated to become water commissioner by a previous mayor of Brooklyn, Colonel Alfred M. Wood, but was denied confirmation by the Board of Aldermen. Thomas Jefferson Whitman mentioned Powell's nomination in a December 1863 letter to Walt. [back]

2. James W. Nye (1815–1876) was the president of the newly founded Metropolitan Board of Police from 1857 to 1860. He was later appointed as governor of the Nevada Territory by Abraham Lincoln and served as a U.S. senator. [back]

3. James S. T. Stranahan (1808-1898) became a member of the Metropolitan Board of Police in 1857. Prior to this, he served as a U. S. Representative from New York's second district from 1855 to 1857. [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]

5. 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]

6. Myndert Van Schaick (1782–1865) was a prominent New York politician, serving as both an alderman of New York City and a representative in the state assembly. Van Schaick was instrumental in supporting the legislation that led to the completion of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842. During the construction of the Brooklyn Water Works, Van Schaick was president of the Board of Commissioners for the Croton Aqueduct. [back]

7. Julius Walker Adams (1812–1899) worked as a civil engineer for several different railroad and sewerage projects. He served as the engineer of Brooklyn's Sewerage Department from 1857 to 1860. He also helped found the American Society of Civil Engineers, later serving as its president. [back]

8. William S. Herriman (1791–1867) served as the president of Long Island Bank up to the time of his death. [back]

9. William Wall (1800–1872) served as mayor of Williamsburgh for one year in 1853. He also served as a commissioner of waterworks for Williamsburgh, and later on the Board of Commissioners for the new Brooklyn Water Works. He later went on to become U.S. Representative from New York's 5th District, serving from 1861 to 1863. [back]

10. Dr. Abraham J. Berry (1797–1865) was a former physician who served as the first mayor of independent Williamsburgh in 1852. Berry was instrumental in setting up a ferry system between Brooklyn and New York, served on the Parks Commission, and played a key role in the incorporation of Williamsburgh into Brooklyn in 1855. [back]

11. Edmund Smith Driggs (1809–1889) was the first president of Williamsburg when it became a village in 1850. [back]

12. John A. Cross (1829–1899) served as an alderman of the 7th Ward. He was also the first president of the Dime Savings Bank. [back]

13. Thomas Sullivan (1817–1880) served as a water commissioner of the city of Brooklyn, as well as president of the City Railroad Company. [back]

14. Nicholas Wyckoff (1799–1883), a member of a prominent Brooklyn family, served on the Board of Commissioners of the Brooklyn Water Works, and later was president of the First National Bank. [back]

15. Daniel Van Voorhis (sometimes spelled Voorhies or Voorhees) was a former sheriff of Brooklyn and a water commissioner of the city of Brooklyn. [back]

Back to top