New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-20
JERSEY CITY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT.
CONTRACTORS PROMISE THAT BIG NEW RESERVOIR
SHALL BEGIN TO SUPPLY WATER

Bridge. is eleven hundred feet in length, and the
third is under the Watching Mountain. at Great
Notch. about two miles long
The pipe line is carried under four rivers-the
Rockaway, about one and one-half miles from the
dam; the Passaic twice. once at Horseneck Bridge
and again at Lyndhurst; and the Hackensack, at
Secaucus. the last two being navigable streams.
The general route Of the pipe line from the reser-
voir TO Jersey City is to Horseneck Bridge, thence
to Fairfield, Sngao. Little Falls. Great Notch. Up
per Montclair, under the Greenwood Lake and
Montclair Railroad. crossing the Newark branch OF
the Erie, between Nutley and Athena; under the
Lacka wanna road, at Kingsland; under the main
line Of the Erie, beyond Secaucus and thence to
the distributing reservoir on Jersey City Heights
At the point Of discharge into the reservoir the
water is measured by Ventura metre The pipe
line is now finished The total amount of the
tract for the supply of fifty million gallons of
daily is 81 $4,000 This includes lands for the
voir rights Of Way etc. The contractors for con-
structing the reservoir Joseph F. Qualey 6, Co.,
Of No. % Broadway
The preparation Of the bed of the reservoir has
not been serious part of the work All the aims
house buildings which occupied the site and few
others have been removed, few trees and much
brush cut out, and 1T was necessary to secure the
rieht Of way and build about two and one-half
miles Of country road. The largest work in con-
nection with this raising the roadway OF the
$50 600 bridge Boonton and ircasng its steel sup
porting beams in masonry. The water of the reser-
voir will come to within a few feet OF the road
way OF the bridge now constructed and this will
be raised eighteen feet at end and about twelve
feet at the other.
There are no swampy places in the bed Of the
ervoir The surface is generally sand and gravel;
1ust below the gravel is thick layer of mpervious
clay.
The people OF Jersey City getting their
water supply from the Passaic River above Little
Falls under contract with the East Jersey Water
Company. The water is pumped into 5l-inch pipe
at Little Falls which is laid six miles TO Upper
Montclair where it connects with the Boonton con-
duit.
There was no more charming region in New-Jer-
sey than that which IS now to be covered with
water 100 feet deep. The reservoir land is located
in one Of the historic regions Of New-Jersey
Down beside the Rockaway River, near the en-
trance to the reservoir used to stand Old Boonton
Forge. where the first iron work ever constructed
in this country was made in 1850 1t was made in
secret There a British law forbdding the
making OF iron work in any Of the American
possessions At this same old forge most of the
cannon balls that Washington's army used in its
New-Jersey and Pennsylvania campaigns were cast
Almost directly across the road that winds down
by the forge stands the old red country house
that for many days was the headquarters OF
Washington and Lafayette. Both of these historic
places will soon be under water. The water company
discovered that over one hundred years ago Alex
ander Hamilton formed ara Incorporated the So
ciety for Establishing Useful Manufactures. The
charter of this company covered almost everything
in New-Jersey. but particularly what was then
known as the Great Peace Meadows" the former
bed Of Lake Passaic. a prehistoric lake which
originally empted into the Raritan River. This
charter provided that if the company continued
in existence uninterruptedly for a century it
should hold its rights TO manufacture to build pub
lie enterprises and everything Of that sort perpetu
ally over its particular territory. So 1t found
that before the work Of constructing the new
reservoir could be begun it would be necessary to
purchase the right to build it from the old COM
pany which has maintained it's existence steadily