A Visit to the Water Works

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A VISIT TO THE WATER WORKS.

Yesterday the Water Commissioners of the city of Brooklyn paid a visit of inspection to the water works now in process of construction. Invitations were extended to the Mayor,¹ Common Council Water Committee, representatives of the press, and a few of the leading citizens who have especially interested themselves in the accomplishment of the work. Our reporter, by the courtesy of Ex-Mayor Wall,² was accommodated with a seat in an elegant and handsome new carriage of that gentleman, where, seated behind two of the Ex-Mayor's fastest trotters, he enjoyed a favorable opportunity of participating in the duties and pleasures of the day.

The carriage left the Wall House about half-past 9, A.M., and passed up South 5th street, Montrose avenue, and Johnson street to the place of rendezvous at the main reservoir at Cypress Hills. On the way it passed the rope making establishment of our kind host, of whom we had the curiosity to inquire a few facts respecting the establishment. The length of the rope-walk is between 1800 and 1400 feet— more than a quarter of a mile—and the chimney alone cost $1,700 in erection.

On arriving at the reservoir we found a select cortege assembled. Unlike most Commissions, the Water Commissioners travelled in their own private carriages, and paid their own expenses. There were six vehicles on the ground, belonging to different members of the commission ; and we have seldom seen a more tasteful turn-out, or a better comparative display of horseflesh. Among the party assembled were, his honor the Mayor, Samuel S. Powell; Ald. Lowber, President of the Water Committee; J. H. Prentice Esq.,³ President of the Commission; Commissioners Wall. Briggs,⁴ Sullivan,⁵ Wyckoff,⁶ Brevoort⁷ and Van Voorhies⁸; E. Driggs, Esq.,⁹; D. Lindsay, Esq., President of the Board of Supervisors; Chief Engineer Kirkwood¹⁰ and his aids, Mr. Samuel McElroy¹¹ (formerly of the U. S. Navy) and Mr. Moses Lane; with the contractors, Messrs. H. S. Welles¹² & Co., and their clerks and other employees.

The company walked round the reservoir, noting the progress of the work, the laborers' cottages which have been put up in the vicinity, and all other matters of interest, but as the progress hitherto made, and present condition of the work, have been very fully and clearly laid before our readers in the report of the Commissioners to the Common Council (published in the Times of Wednesday) we do not deem it necessary to repeat information of which the public are already in possession.

During their stay at the reservoir the visitors witnessed an experiment made to test the consistency and strength of a composition of clay (found on the spot) and gravel, with which it is intended to plaster the earth banks of the reservoir before adding the brick facing. It was found that peven under exposure to the atmosphere and other unfavorable circumstances, it required a pressure of a column of water 24½ feet in height, to burst asunder a two feet thickness of puddling. This experiment was pronounced satisfactory in its results.

Leaving the location of the reservoir, the company walked about two miles along the course of the excavation intended for the conduit. They found about 300 men engaged on the different parts of the work, but it is intended, now that the season is advancing, to put on four times that number. There are no difficult excavations to be made, the soil being light and sandy, requiring hardly to be disturbed by the pickaxe before being lifted with the shovel. The porousness of the ground, however, causes a difficulty of another kind, from the rapid influx of the water, which percolates into the excavation to such an extent that it tested the powers of a steam pump to remove even from a short length of the excavation the water which constantly flowed into it.

Regaining their carriages, the party proceeded to the first pond, which had been drained preparatory to being cleaned out thoroughly. The bottom of the pond consisted of a thick layer of peat, which needs only an admixture of lime to become excellent manure—yet the Long Island farmers, with an obtuseness to their own interests difficult to be accounted for, prefer to pay high prices for transit of manure from a distance, to availing themselves of an equally efficient substitute, which may be had for the taking.

The party next repaired to the house of Mr. Ryder,¹³ of Jamaica, (brother of Senator Ryder) where some of the corps of engineers have taken up their quarters. Here a bountiful repast was spread, and, despite the temperance proclivities of Mr. R., very excellent champagne and spirits dispensed. After dinner the party were regaled with segars—not Havanas, but first rate nevertheless—real segars, made from tobacco raised in the 18th ward of our own goodly city. Let New Yorkers crow over us as they please, we defy Manhattan Island to equal Bushwick in the article of segars.

Refreshed and invigorated by the halt, the party proceeded to visit in succession the remaining ponds proposed to be taken to supply the city with water. The road lay through a somewhat varied series of prospects—trees in large numbers, and bogs of unknown depth and large extent, being agreeably relieved at intervals by neat frame houses and out-buildings. It is only right to state that houses of refreshment for the inner man constituted a large proportion of the roadside buildings. Judging from appearances, there is abundance of something besides water, and stronger than it, to be had up the Island, if Brooklyn should happen to run short.

So far as an unprofessional judgment may be formed, the character of the farming between Rockville and Jamaica is wretched. The most of the land is of inferior quality, to be sure, but the style of agricultural practice is far worse. Fences dilapidated, furrows irregular, productions nondescript, evinced a degree of negligence and carelessness disgraceful to the locality and the age. Eli Thayer need not send to Virginia to reclaim waste lands—farmers need not go out West to find forests to clear. There is abundance of labor wanted on this Island, provided it be guided by a proportionate amount of skill and industry. The agricultural part of Long Island ought to support ten times its present number of inhabitants.

Not a doubt existed in the minds of any of the visitors, after seeing the ponds,¹⁴ that the supply of water would be equal to the wants of Brooklyn for years and years to come. Tasting it confirmed the results of the analyses which have been made, and which have shown it to be softer, purer, and more adapted for the purposes of a city supply, than the Croton,¹⁵ or the water supply of any city in the Union. The Croton contains seven grains of solid sediment per gallon; the Long Island water only two and a half. As to the adequacy of supply, it is necessary only to state, that the Cypress Hills reservoir will when completed be the largest reservoir in the United States, and contain 165 million gallons—a quantity equal to all the reservoirs of London combined.

The extremity of the Commissioners' visit was the Parsonage Creek, distant 17 miles from the city, and the point at which the conduit will commence. In returning from the Creek, the horses in Mr. Wyckoff's carriage suddenly shied at a water wheel which was revolving in a flour mill within a few feet of the road, and but for the prompt presence of mind of Mr. Driggs, who leaped out and caught the horses' heads, the occupants of the vehicle might have been precipitated over the bridge.

In returning home the party drove through the village of Jamaica, passing the residence of his Excellency Governor King,¹⁶ who occupies a handsome and well located mansion, befitting at once his social standing and official position.

There have only two facts come to our knowledge, from which any serious impediment to the progress of the work may be feared. One is that the men engaged on some parts of the conduit complain that the locality super-induces fever and ague. As to this, we suspect the real objection is in the rate of wages paid. The contractors, we opine, could easily remove this cause of complaint, and promptly procure a large additional staff of laborers, by paying an extra quarter or so per diem, as we understand they intend doing. The other matter out of which difficulty may arise, is that the authorities of the various places in which the ponds to be taken are located, allege that the titles to the property will be forfeited if the grist mills are not kept up, the right to the use of the water having been granted to the millers on this condition. Legal proceedings have been threatened, but we apprehend the contractors will be able to make an amicable arrangement. They have been very conciliatory in their negotiations with the land owners in the purchase of the ground required for the conduit, and have in many cases submitted to exorbitant demands sooner than prejudice the people against them by resorting to litigation. The Commissioners have been carefully advised by Mr. J. M. Van Cott¹⁷ as to the validity of the titles to the property taken, and they will know how to maintain the rights of the city, without unnecessarily embroiling themselves either with private owners or village authorities.

The time has gone by when it was requisite to show the urgent need of a water supply for the city of Brooklyn. Consequently we will only remark in this connection, that the rate of insurance charged on Brooklyn property, above that of New York (and which disparity exists solely on account of Brooklyn having no water supply) amounts to three hundred thousand dollars—very nearly enough to defray the whole current cost of the work, by paying the interest on the city bonds in which payment is made to the contractors. Not to adduce other benefits to the city, directly referable to a water supply, we have here a fact which shows that the work will be, from the first, a self-paying one.

One fact more need be mentioned, in conclusion. The visit of inspection, of which the above is a hasty account, did not cost the city a cent. The viands, the wines, and even the Bushwick segars, were supplied by the various Commissioners, at their own expense. And the inauguration ceremonies of the work, at its formal opening last autumn, cost the public no more. All expenses were defrayed by the seven generous and public-spirited men, who, not at their own solicitation, but at that of the Common Council and their fellow-citizens, have undertaken the labor and responsibility of superintending gratuitously the introduction of a water supply, and of an effective system of drainage simultaneously therewith: If the zeal, disinterestedness, and ability which they bring to the discharge of these duties accomplish their proper discharge—and the harmony existing in their body assures us of this—then these men will be rewarded for having done that which money would not pay them to do, by receiving what money could not induce them to part with—the approbation of their own consciences and the grateful applause of their fellow-citizens.

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