Evening star., 1939-08-13
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

The second act of the modern drama
entitled 'Washington's Water Supply g"
N.e.. reads an article in the
80 news columns of The Star
NJ OF August II, 1889, was
MoIn Work begun this morning
when Contractor Thomas Cowle and a
gang of 20 men went to work at the cor
ner of r and Fourth streets NV. to
dig the trench for the new 4-foot main
that Is to connect the great reservoirs
with the city's pipe system. This is
over month ahead of the time set by
Col. Wilson when he made his plans for
the work, the advance being due to
desire on the part of Col. George H. Ell
liott, the present engineer officer in
charge, to push the project to COM
pletion at the earliest possible date.
There is considerable stock of pipe on
hand and Col. Elliott calculated upon a
sufficiently rapid delivery of the re-
mainder to keep the workmen busy from
now on, making allowances for bad
weather and other hindrances.
Another gang will be started in
short time at the other end-the dis
tributing reservoir above Georgetown
and the two will approach each other
from these starting points. The trench
will be dug ahead about a couple of
blocks, so as to give the pipe layers
plenty OF room. The latter will begin the
work OF laying the pipes on Wednesday
or possibly on Thursday, and then the
picks will fly and the earth will swallow
the great black monsters at merry rate
until there is 48-inch tube laying under
ground to bring water from the reservoir
on the hills to the 4-foot main that runs
up New Jersey avenue. When that will
be is question that Col Elliott refused
to answer this morning while talking to
Star reporter. There are so many pos
sible obstacles, he explained, that may
delay the work in unforeseen ways that
1t is not safe to predict the date of
completion.
1T Is an unfortunate fact he said,
that the District government kept no
records of the things that were put
underground, such as gas pipes, water
mains and sewers. From the time of
the Sheppard government down to the
present time there is a perfect record
of every project, and we have an accu-
rate map Of the obstacles in our way that
were planted during that period, but
beyond that we shall be cropping in the
dark. There is no telling what we may
strike. 1t may be sewer or a grave
yard Such an obstacle as a sewer in
our path would inconvenience us badly,
as we should have to wait until we got
it out of our way. The pipe must 20
on at all hazards, even if the sewer is
blocked and turned into another course.
We might take dip under an obstacle,
but that Is not good plan, for it gives
low spot in the main where sedi-
ment Is sure to collect and impede the
flow OF water. There will be big dip
where the pipe crosses Rock Greek at
M street, but we can remedy this by
means OF a blow-off The plans for the
crossing have not yet been quite COM
pleted, but the pipe will be supported
between two large trusses. The span
Is 126 feet long.
1--WE shall keep ahead with the work
from now on and I can promise the
folks here an increased water supply at
the very earliest possible moment. The
materials are coming in at satisfactory
rate and are of good quality. Our in
spectors at the works are rejecting pipe
right and left and allow none but perfect
work to be sent here. There was car
load OF special casting smashed in
transit few days ago, but this will not
delay the work at all, as we have others
at hand and more coming. This loss
will fall on the contractors and may be
transferred from them to the railroad
company, so the Government will not
lose . cent by the accident. It was due
to careless packing and handling"