Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Published Writings
  3. Periodicals
  4. Journalism
  5. per.00661

Our Water Works

About This Item

  • Title: Our Water Works
  • Date: 24 May 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00661
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 24 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 Jason Stacy Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Our 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.00661.xml (TEI)
image 1image 2image 3image 4cropped image 1

OUR WATER WORKS.—

The Sunday Mercury,1 speaking of the laying of the water pipes through our Brooklyn streets, says:

In a few months the gushing stream will be dancing along this subterranean path, murmuring its own song of imprisonment, and dashing impetuously out, when manumitted by the hydrant, in a burst of joyous brightness scattering jewels in the sunlight for all who can appreciate the precious, without the value or change. But will those ponds furnish a continuous and sufficient supply? Or will Brooklyn yet have to come to New York for the Croton after expending so much in this independent experiment? That's the rub! How will a twelvemonth hence answer this delicate question?

Yes, indeed, sir. When our works are finished, and the "liquid tide" runs through them, we shall not only have enough to supply a city of 230,000 inhabitants—our present population, be it remembered—but the works can easily be added to, to make a capacity for a city of a million people. And when we reach that latter figure, we can bring in a large further addition still. Truly, in short terms, the water supply for Brooklyn, through these works, can be recruited indefinitely, according to whatever quantity is wanted.

Notes:

1.  [back]

Back to top