Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-01-23
improvements in Washington City.

In the light of modern knowledge, and 10
comply with the sanitary demands of Am
erican society, IL has been necessary for the
new government at Washington To correct
the photography of the place, and give the
city for the first time a system of sewerage
adequate for the health of Congress and to
cOunteract the floods which continue 10 visit
Baltimore annually. The mouth of the Ii
Der was filled, and q new mouth given il
down stream; the whole stream and its three
branches were arched over with brick, and
the former outlet also severed. This central
system of main sewerage, of which II, 800 feet
had been completed in 1873, is nowhere less
than nine feet span, and for much OF the dis
tance thirty feet. buggy can be driven
through il all, space OF three miles. II
empties into broad canal, which the tide
cleanSeS twice day, and which will make
hereafter the chief port of the city. hav-
ing been dredged out to a proper depth.
Thus peStiterouS gutter, occasionally q tor
rent, which, according to a bOarl of army
engineers appointed in 1868, received annual
ly 100000 cubic feet of VileneSS, was a vast
feTInenting vat without a current, useless for
navigation, and deadly, became an arbores-
cent and monumental system of sewerage.
covered with grass, paved streets, and files
of houses; while another sewer, tapping the
Tiber as ii emerged from the heights back OF
the city, led the natural brook and its del
ugeS off by the rear to the Eastern Branch.
The third creek, which underlieS the West
End, or new fashionable part of Washington,
has been lncaSed in sewer of ten feet span,
so that there are no longer puddleS or ponds
or open sinks in any part of Washington. At
the same time Georgetown was given great
main sewer, and these four systems COM
prise, with their arteries Of Scotch pipe and
iron sewerage, i23 miles OF underground
work, hidden away so that one must seek IL
out, ana yet formidable expense To pOpu-
lation mainly clerical. There are no such
sewers in extent or dimensions on the west
ern continent.
Before any work could be begun on the sur
face of Washington the sewerage had to be
provided for, and gas and water mains put
down. The Washington Aqueduct, which
was finished on December Is, 1868, sufficiently
to introduce water into Washington, was
connected with the city by two mains only,
designed to supply the public buildings. The
old corporation had tapped these mains, but
the growing needs of citizens for ablution,
comfort, and fire, rendered it necessary for a
comprehensive government to lay its own
mains from the reservoir, two miles west
OF Georgetown, through the streets of that
borough, and across Rock Creek into those
portions of the city hitherto without water
previous. Another vast underground system
was thus incumbent upon the authorities,
with extensive ramifcations In almost every
street, and with high service reservoirs fed
by force-pumps from the mains to accom-
mOdate those citizens whose thrifty homes
into heights above the ordinary flow OF the
aQueduct. In two years the city laid thirty
miles of water mains, and lowered below the
new street grades about nine miles more, so
that the city has at present lSS miles OF water
pipe Washington has the greatest supply
ofwater per head of any modern municipal
ity-lH gallons per diem. The distributing
system Is fed through an infinite number OF
hydrants, drinking fountains, fire plugs, and
ornamental fountains; and as the new gov
ernment had to consider also the country
district, the old springs have been cleansed
and protected for miles thereabouts, and
pumps put down on the neighboring roads.
While tne sewerage and water supply were
thus enlarged, the gas light company was in
cited TO equal eXertion in extending its
mains below the surface, and the former city,
which was wrapped in comparative dark
ness, showed in 1873 above three thousand
public lamps partly lighted by electricity
George Alfred I0tCTse',d, Ca HDpeTs Magazine
yoT February.