The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1907-01-30
ECLIpSES PANAMA CANAL
NEW YORK WATER SYSTEM A
MORE HERCULEAN TASK.
Greatest Engineering Work This
Country Every Saw Now in
Progress in Gotham.

and along the course of the Hudson.
| It's completion will mean the crea-
ton of a water supply system for
New York city which will dwarf the
mightiest efforts of the old Romans,
and provide for the storage OF a
greater volume of water than that
accomplished by any similar project
| in history. AS to the mere matter
of cost, the building of the reser-
voirs in the Catskill region and the
bringing of the water to all the bor-
oughs of New York will involve an
expenditure of 1852, 100000, while
the estimates of the cost of digging
the Panama canal are $140, 900.
Not only in cost, but in the diff
Guilty of the engineering problems to
be solved, the New York reservoir
acqueduct project is far greater
work than the big ditch. In ac-
tual benefits to humanity too, the
results to be attained by the estab-
lishment of this great water supply
are intellectually more important
than the commercial advantages
which will flow from the completion
of the canal. Though New York has
from the Croton watershed a supply
which in good years is adequate, eX-
perts have calculated that two dry
summers in succession would reduce
the volume of water in storage as to
create a water famine; for supply
of half the normal volume would
mean. not the halving of each con-
sumer's share, but, owing to vari-
ations in pressure and means of dis
| tribution, the absolute cutting off
of the supply of large section OF the
city. The fearful possibilities OF
such a calamity, through removal of
fire and sanitary protection, as we'll
as the supply for ordinary house
hold necessities, need only to be
limited at.
This immense undertaking in
wolves the construction of nine big
reservoirs, seven to be used as col
Letting points for the various water
sheds of the Catskills and two as
storage stations against a time OF
drouth. The largest reservoir, the
Ashokan, which will lie Is miles
west of Kingston, will have an area
of 10000 acres, and a capacity OF
from 12O, OOO,0OO,OOO to 100000
100000 gallons. This will be the
largest reservoir ever built.
Some of the most difficult of the
engineering problems to be solved,
with which j. Waldo Smith, chief
engineer of the project, and his men
are graphing, are connected with the
construction of the acqueduct which
is to bring the water III miles to
the remotest districts of Brooklyn
and Staten Island. Most interesting
to the lay mind is the method by
which the aqueduct will pass the
barrier of the Hudson river just
north of West Point. Owing to the
great depth of the river at this point
and the faults" in the rocks under
living it's bed it will probably be nee
essary to sink shafts 70 feet in Or
der to reach rock solid enough for
tunneling Through the U-shaped
tunnel to be constructed the water
will be "siphoned," in accordance
Ixy,c VN1siY niT 1n NJ
physics, to the eastern shore of the
river, whence it will be conducted
to the storage reservoirs at Kensi-
co. near White Plains, and Hillview,
near the northern city line. The first
of these reservoirs will have a ca
pacity of 100000 100000 gallons, or
so DAYS supply, which will be held,
so far as possible, as a reserve, the
Hillview reservoir being used partly
for reserve, but chiefly as a distrib-
uting point.
The total estimated capacity of
the Catskill reservoirs is considera-
bly, upward of 200, OO0,000,O00 gal
Ions. The new acqueduct must be
capable of carrying 100000 gal
Ions daily, and it is estimated that
the total available yield of the Cat
skill region will be 660,000,000 gal
Ions daily. The two Croton acque-
ducts, when running at their full ca
pacity, can deliver to the city about
$4,000, 900 gallons a day, though
not more than $3OO,OOO,OOO gallons
a day, so experts say, can safely be
drawn from the Croton supply in
times of drouth Even this addition
to its supply may not suffice, experts
say, for the needs of New York %
years hence, at it's present rate of
| growth.