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The Water Works

About This Item

  • Title: The Water Works
  • Date: 30 August 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00695
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 30 August 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: Elva Moreno Del Rio Samantha Gilmore Thara Michaelis Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Water Works." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00695.xml (TEI)
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THE WATER WORKS.—

By the publication of the communication addressed by the Water Commissioners to the Common Council, we are now in possession of the exact terms of the proposition to be made to the city this evening. The open canal, 7½ miles in length from Baisely's Pond,1 being universally disapproved of, Messrs. Welles & Co.,2 offer to substitute therefor a cylindrical brick aqueduct, 8 inches thick, and from 6 to 7½ ft. in diameter, for $110,000. The Engineer, however, refuses to sanction the change, unless the bottom of the aqueduct be made 12 inches thick instead of 8, which will cost $25,000 more, or $135,000 altogether. This sum the Water Commissioners formally apply to the Common Council for, and, under the circumstances, we doubt whether much opposition ought to be, or will be, made to the demand. The Commissioners close their communication by reiterating their hope and belief that the first supply of water to the city will be ready during the coming fall.

Notes:

1. Baisley's Pond was a major supply reservoir for the Brooklyn Water Works located in what is today the borough of Queens. It was a former mill pond, named after its owner David Baisley, who had sold it to the local water authorities in 1852. It was also occasionally referred to as Baisley's Pond, Jamaica Pond, or Rider's Pond. For a period in 1857, it housed a team of engineers, including Walt's brother Thomas Jefferson Whitman ("Jeff"). [back]

2. 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]

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