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Immigration Vacation: Old Croton Aqueduct

Posted July 5, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.

New York City could not have grown without water for its expanding population to drink. In the early 1800s, the city decided to build an artificial river underground to bring water from northern Westchester to Manhattan. The Croton Aqueduct would require thousands of day laborers to dig the artificial river. The city turned to its despised Irish immigrants to perform this vital work. You can visit the waterworks that allowed New York to become a world capital and learn about the Irish families that built it and populated the communities that rose up around it on your Immigration Vacation.

New York City’s lack of a water supply before the Croton project not only limited expansion, it threatened the city’s existence. Fires in the mostly wooden city often got out of hand because fire companies could never get enough water. In 1837, construction on the aqueduct began. The aqueduct began at the Croton River, near Croton-on-Hudson. It ran down to the Bronx and across the Harlem River at High Bridge at 173rd St. A receiving reservoir in what is now the Great Lawn at Central Park held the Westchester water. A distribution reservoir at the area now called Bryant Park was the final stop for the water before it went to homes and hydrants around the city. The aqueduct water traveled a total of 41 miles from source to consumer.

The State of New York has created the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, which is about a hundred feet wide and 26 miles long. I wanted to point out a few places along the trail where you can appreciate the work that was done and learn about the immigrants who built it.

A few weeks ago, I took my son to the place where the aqueduct starts. The New Croton Dam, in the video above, replaced the original dam built by Irish immigrants. This new dam was built by Italian stone masons about a hundred years ago. There is a small park at the base of it (fee charged for parking) and a free walkway on the dam.

The “new” dam is beautiful, incorporating a terraced waterfall and a gravity fed fountain. The dam itself diverts some of the Croton River into the aqueduct, and you can get on the aqueduct trail at the south side of the dam or park. My son rode his bike over the dirt trail here down to Ossining. He saw deer along the way and suggested that this is a good place for hikers and joggers.

Ossining contains two important parts of the aqueduct. The first is the Ossining Weir. The weir is a building where the underground aqueduct could be shut off to allow for cleaning and repairs. We were lucky enough to visit on a day that tours of the building were offered. These are only offered a few times each month, and I strongly suggest you time your visit to coincide with a tour. Contact the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct for more info on when tours are offered.

Tours of the weir are free and take about 20 minutes. A guide will tell you a little about the history of the aqueduct and show you the weir works used to block the water flow. But the coolest part is, you will be taken into the tunnel where the water flowed 170 years ago. Next to the weir is a pedestrian bridge that was originally built to carry the aqueduct over the Ossining Creek.

The Ossining Community Center has a small museum devoted to the aqueduct. One of the things we learned there was how much the local community feared the Irish day laborers who worked on the canal. There is even an article there from a local newspaper mocking an Irish family who lost everything in a fire while the dad was working on the aqueduct.

The community center also houses a neat Sing Sing Prison museum. Ossining is the home of the prison, which housed many Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants over the years.

Map of New Croton Dam

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This map shows you where the Ossining Community Center where the Aqueduct and Sing Sing museums are located. You can also see the Old Croton Aqueduct State trail to the left of the community center. Park on Ann St. to access the weir and the bridge over the creek.

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Image courtesy of the New York Public Library via Flickr.

Tags : immigration vacation, irish immigrants

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