The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-08-07
Wiping Out 1.-THE Village of
CanisteaT to Add to the
Storage Capacity Of
NeWark's Water
Supply.
THIRTEEN HUNDRED MEN BUSY
Three Great Dams Will Hold in
Check the Huge Body Of
Water in the Valley.

A work of great magnitude is being
prosecuted aInong the foothills of Sussex
county for THE benefit of Newarkers, says
the Newark Evening News" The seat
of operations is the village of Canistear,
which is located near the lines dividing
| Sussex, Morris and Passaic counties and
| about two and one-half miles north of
Stockholm. The old village history con-
tains facts of Revolutionary days, but in
a few months it will be practically wiped
off the mag and its site win be marked
by a huge body of water, which will be
known as the third of Newarkss storage
reservoirs.
The task of converting the village in
the valley into a reservoir has been adj
aotted by the East Jersey Water Conn
pany TO T.. A. & r. G. Gillespie, the com
tractors, who constructed the Oak Ridge
and Clinton reservoirs and the two pIp
lfnes THAI constitute Newark's winter
supply plant. The second conduit, by the
way. is only now nearing completion.
To see now the contractors were pro-
crossing members of the Board of Works
paid a visit to Canistear yesterday.
President Stainsby, Commissioner Burk-
| hardt, Engineer Sherrerd. Assistant En-
gineer Bail, Clerk Greathead and several
Others, left the Market street depot
shortly after eight O'Clock On the
meadows the party were delayed by an
accident that happened to an engine
drawing am earlier train. The Newarkers
had to connect at Jersey City with the
only train that leaves in the morning on
the New York, Susquehanna and Western
Railroad for Stockholm. 1t was neces-
sary to telegraph ahead to hold that
train.
AT Newfoundland Commissioner Van
Duyne met the party, having driven there
from his farm, near Pompton. Carriages
We're in readiness at Stockholm and the
Newarkers had to drive over a rough,
dusty mountain road. The~heat was ex-
cessive.
Arriving ait the reservoir site there was
to be seen about as complete an equip
1nent for construction work as money
and ingenuity could devise. Every avail
able adjunct has been utilized to get
the greatest amount of work done in the
shortest possible time. n enc great
object seemed to be to make time, as it
is the GeSfre of the company to have the
work completed this ear. Should the
have performed one of the greatest sfeats
known in engineering annals.
Is Is calculated that the reservoirs when
completed will hold about 2s599. 00.e00 gall
Ions of water. to be supplied from a
drainage area of about ten square miles.
The sire selected is a low spot, surround
ed by the foot hills of what are known
locally as the Observation-Disclosures a part
of the Blue Ridge range. The flow of the
water is to be 1886 feet above sea level,
and to hold in check such an immense
volume of water the low spots or gaps in
the mountains must be damned up. It is
in the construction of these barriers that
the work lies.
The main dam, or No. 1. as 1T is called
for convenience, will be $50 feet long and
about sixty feet in height Its construc-
ton Will be in the form of a concrete core
eighteen feet wide at the base and SIX
feet across at the top. For a foundation
blasted TO a depth of twelve feet and the
concrete toed firmly into the natural rock.
On each side of the concrete core there
will be earth filing This filing is putfon'
in layers about five inches in thickness,
wetted down with a hose and firmly.
packed with two-ton rollers. The wetting
and packing process will be followed out
with every layer. When completed the
dam will be $40 feet at the base and about
eighteen feet across the top. The earth
sides will be paved with heavy stone
blocks.
An artificial channel is being dug, the
bed of which will be of concrete, and this
will lead the water TO the s~gatehouse that
will be built within the dam itself. Dam
w.. 4tl5 tdLC Oh luBliC ~ lltC 11ol Llltf CC Z
and Will be designed as the overflow or
spilling DAM. Tt viii be about 275 feet long
and will be built of solid masonry, with
a width of thirty feet at the base and
tapering somewhat as it rises TO a height
of thirty-hve feet or whereabouts.
Dam No. 8 will be lbs feet long and No.
4 will have a length of 800 feet. Both the
latter wifi be constructed on the principal
of the main structure, but neither will
reach a great height.
r. A. Gillespie is IN the ground per-
sonally supervising the great work, which
keeps ], 300 men busy. The work is carried
on practically for twenty-four hours each
day, and seven days each week. No ex-
pense seemingly has been spared in giving
the laborers all the aid that they can de-
rive on such a job from steam, electricity
and machinery. Ten engines and twelve
boilers are kept going constantly to sup
ply power. Three pumps are busy forcing
water into as many tanks situated . on
high spots from which iron pipes have
been laid, so that water can be supplied
to any part of the ground by gravity. The
men are supplied with drinking water by
goes about with two pals suspended from
q yoke
An the stone used in the construction
work is q~uarried on the ground and
trimmed up by some stanecutters. The
smaller fragments of rock are passed
along to feed q crusher nearby. where the
broken stone is conveyed through aschute
direct from the ponderous jaws of the
crusher into a kind of concrete drum.
which is fed from the opposite sid with
sand and cement. Water pours in at one
end. and as the drum is kept revolving by
steam, mixed concrete is discharged from
the other extremity: Cars attached to a
travelling crane cable stretched high in
the air carry the concrete to any point de-
As about 10000 cubic yards of concete
will haye to pc laid, the advantage OF a
mixer q = 3 apps sde Z ia From n 2 ooo fne quarry quarry
of solid masonry must be mined, to say