The High bridge at Harlem, a view of which is given in the cut below,
forms part of the immense works erected to bring the water of the Croton
river into the city of New York. The dam at the river, which is seventy
feet wide at the bottom, seven feet wide at the top, and two hundred and
fifty feet long and forty feet high, creates a pond five miles long,
covering a surface of four hundred acres, and containing five hundred
million gallons of water. From this the aqueduct proceeds, sometimes
tunneling through solid rocks, crossing valleys by embankments, and
brooks by culverts, till it reaches the Harlem river, a distance of
thirty-three miles. It is built of stone, brick and cement, arched over
and under, and is made large enough to discharge sixty millions of
gallons every twenty-four hours. It crosses the Harlem river on a
magnificent bridge of stone, fourteen hundred and fifty feet long,
having fourteen piers, eight of them bearing arches of eighty feet span,
and seven others of fifty feet span, one hundred and fourteen feet above
tide-water at the top. The aqueduct then passes on to a first, or
receiving reservoir, which covers thirty-five acres and will hold one
hundred and fifty million gallons, and thence to the second, or
distributing reservoir, which holds twenty million gallons, whence it is
distributed by pipes through the city. The entire cost of the work has
been fifteen million dollars.
[Illustration: THE HIGH BRIDGE AT HARLEM.]