The Brooklyn Water Works.—Is the Reservoir a Failure?

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THE BROOKLYN WATER WORKS.—IS THE RESERVOIR A FAILURE?

From the tenor of several articles which have appeared in the Eagle lately, its readers, if they credited the statements, must have been led to the conclusion that the Ridgewood Reservior was a perfect failure, and needed radical reconstruction in order to make it available for the purpose for which it was designed. If this be so the city has been swindled by the commissioners, Engineers and Contractors to a fearful extent; and the "Celebration" over which we are making such a fuss, and for which such vast and expensive preparations are being made, will be nothing but a costly sham and a complete farce.

But let us see on what authority these grave statements rest. Our cotemporary says—

It may be as well to state that the Reporters derived their information from a source that can not admit of any doubt. They were informed that six or seven hundred feet of the loose stone fence, which constitutes the only protection of the Reservoir, had given way. This information was derived directly from Mr. McElroy,¹ the Assistant Engineer of the Water Commissioners; and who at the same time volunteered the opinion that when the Reservoir fills there is reason to apprehend serious trouble.

Mr. McElroy was one of the Engineers who drew the original plans, and was, we believe, a candidate for the chief constructing Engineership. This post having, however, been conferred on Mr. Kirkwood,² and himself placed in a subordinate position, Mr. McElroy has lost no opportunity during the whole progress of the work, of predicting its failure, censuring Mr. Kirkwood's approval of the various changes, and generally intimating that the latter has been totally incompetent for his position, and has bungled the work in every possible way. We have all along regarded the attacks on the Water Works as emanating from a petty professional pique on the part of Mr. McElroy towards Mr. Kirkwood, but have abstained hitherto from expressing this conviction, in the hope that the successful completion of the works would furnish the best answer to all that has been urged against their alleged errors of construction.

Now, however, when we are told that the vast expenditures of the city on this Reservoir have been thrown away, the matter becomes too serious for any personal considerations to restrain us from speaking openly. Mr. McElroy's or Mr. Kirkwood's professional abilities or personal feelings, cease to be worthy of consideration when weighed in the balance with Brooklyn's vital interests.

We assert, therefore, on the authority of the Water Commissioners, that Mr. McElroy himself has superintended the construction of the Reservoir, in particular; that he has endoresed and approved the works and the changes made in them; and has always avowed to the Commissioners and their friends his conviction that the Reservoir was properly constructed, that the work was durable, and that when completed it would form the best work of the kind in the United States.

On the other hand, we assert of our own knowledge, that Alderman Dayton's³ persistent and continuous opposition to the works, both in Brooklyn and Albany, was prompted by Mr. McElroy, and was based on Mr. McElroy's figures and assertions. We assert also that Alderman Backhouse's⁴ report, so far as its figures and engineering estimates are concerned, was based on Mr. McElroy's statements. In other words, that the one prompter and originator of all the attacks made on the reputation of the works, all the predictions of the failure of the works, has been Mr. McElroy and no one else;— a man who all the while has been under pay of the Commissioners, whose course he was condemning; and professionally superintending a work which he was representing to be a sham and a failure.

We think it high time, therefore, that Mr. McElroy should be required to state, over his own signature, whether he considers the works or any part of them a failure; and if so, for what reasons. Every other engineer who has been called in has endorsed and approved the works. If Mr. Mc Elroy will do the same in writing, we presume the public will be satisdied that they have been soundly, durably, and properly constructed—for he is the only engineer who has ever been known to say or intimate anything to the contrary.

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