New-York tribune., 1906-06-03
JAP AND RUSS FLEETs COULD M4oElvRE olR Ew RESERVOIR @

when New York City taps the CatskiIls and
sts aqueducts begin 10 drain the great reser-
volrs. whose sites engineers have already sur
veyod it viii have enough water to drink ami
cook with, il is said, for everybody IN the whole
world. II viii obtain from all sources billion
gallons a day twice its present supply II
will accordingly be able TO give two-thirds of
gallon daily 10 every human being. OF course
The city could not be expected 10 furnish water
for all the needs OF humanity. With this aver
aee allowance for each man. woman and child
there would hardly be enough to sprinkle the
streets or extinguish fires. Everybody, too
could not have private swimming tank But
if ali the world simply depended on New York
for al the water il needed for sustaining life
it could get along most comfortably.
IN charging its water supply according TO the
plan 10 which ii has committed itself, New York
has undertaken tbs greatest enterprise of this
character ever attempted by a municipality. in
fact. il is greater than many tasks which have
staggered nations The extension cf New
Yorks water system TO the Catskills is esti-
mated TO cost SlGl. .000.000 This is more than
thirty times the cost of the Corinth Canal. an
achievement which the Roman Empire under
Nero undertook. but failed 10 accomplish, and
which not finished until about thirteen
years ago The great Suez Canal. which had
balhed human ambition for more than twenty
centuries. cost. only fve-eighths Of what the
Ca;skiu water scheme is figured at And even
the lock canal at Panama. il is estimated. will
cost S200o00J0 less
BOW vast Viii be The daily supply from New
York. new water sheds may be illustrated by
letting the Imagination turn il loose in Broad
way. That not a drop might leak away sup
Jose that thoroughfare was turned into a water
buildings facinS in il coatei with cement
AM The side streets damned up. AT the end
OF rwenty-four hours a half Eilon gallons
would have come down from the mountains
filing the street from Bowling Green to 1S0th
street to the depth of twelve feet. In an hour
and a half this torrent would I'll 10 the brim
every one % the ~. .0e0 bathtubs in Manhattan
and The Bronx. If al the 24630o) faucets in
tiase TWO boroughs wele turned on. each one
oa an average would run two hundred gallons
a dag. or enough TO food the floor of GxS
fo7t room six inches deep In two hours the
ac9edac,s would food Madison Square Garden
10 The ro5f. md if Manhattan was walled up
around its eiges so that il resembled a colossal
bucket they would in yoar inundate the whole
island 70 the 6epth Of thirtysix feet.
EIGHT NEW RESERVOIRS.
Of the eight reservoirs which are TO be built.
seven ll II- tGtsEllS ana one on the Otner Side
&C. the Hudson River. al Kensico one alone would
ne sufficient 10 fiji the water mains Of three Bos-
ions. or four Cleveands. This Will be the Asho-
lan reseIn or. The daily supply from which will
be equal 70 al the seven others combined. II will
he six times greater than the new Croton reser-
ror. il can be drained Of 25O.O0O,OOO gallons a
cay AT elshy, with a daily flow of 800
r""33 gallons, could supply the needs of Chi
olgo. Boston and Cleveland put together. And
when New Yorks new supply is added TO its
o.d furnishing in all a billion gallons il will
have enough water for two Chicagos one Phil
ddelphis and one Buffalo all united into a
single city Rome. in the Golden Age. with all
its massive aqueducts. had only one-twentieth of
This supply
mere are many lakes popularity regarded as
of considerable size which would appear dwarfed
when compared with the reservoir system of
New Nork's new water supply. The Ashokan
reservoir. for example. viii hold more water
than all three Of the Lakes Of Killarney The
Ashokan Will measure twelve miles long, with
an average width OF one and a half miles and
vlli contain 170Oo00OO00O gallons The upper
lake Of Killarney is two and a half miles long
and three-quarters OF z mile wide; the middle
lake. TWO miles long and one mile wide and the
lower lake. five miles long and three miles wide.