Brooklyn Water Supply Long Island Aqueduct, Part 1

The City of Brooklyn built its own water supply in the 19th Century.  It was a series of wells, ponds and reservoirs, running from Massapequa to the Ridgewood Reservoir, connected by an aqueduct that ran parallel to Sunrise Highway, and then northwest under what is now called Conduit Boulevard.  Robert Moses swapped most of the land with Nassau County so he could build highways.  The wells are all gone, but the ponds and reservoirs remain, mostly as parks.  the structures are in disrepair, or have been completely destroyed.  I walked from Massapequa to Wantagh to photograph the section furthest from Brooklyn.  I've included two earlier pictures at the bottom; the Massapequa Gatehouse in 1998, before it had a roof (and a coat of red paint) and the Wantagh Pumping Station, before it was  walled in.

Massapequa Gatehouse

Massapequa Gatehouse

Massapequa Spillway

Seaford Creek

Seaford Gatehouse

Wantagh Upper Spillway

Wantagh Lower Spillway

Wantagh Gatehouse

Wantagh Pump Station

Walking Route

Massapequa Gatehouse, 1998

Wantagh Pump Station, 1997

New York City Water Tunnel No. 3

City Tunnel No. 3 is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the United States.  It was begin in 1970 and is nearing completion.  Completion of the tunnel will allow maintenance work to be done on Tunnels 1 and 2, which have been in continuous operation since their completion early in the 20th century.  The new tunnel begins at Hillview Reservoir in Westchester, then travels south through the Bronx.  Valve chambers allow portions to be shut down and to redirect water flow.  The largest valve chamber is located underneath Van Cortlandt Park.  There are other valve chambers underneath Central Park and Roosevelt Island.  The Tunnel splits in midtown, one leg going east to Queens and then Brooklyn, another south on the West Side of Manhattan.  There are shafts to allow for access every few miles, and each shaft has a distinctive ventilation tower.  Photographs of the shafts can be seen in a previous blog entry.

Shaft 2b, City Tunnel No. 3, Bronx, New York

Shaft 2b, City Tunnel No. 3, Bronx, New York

Shaft 13b, City Tunnel No. 3, New York, New York

City Tunnel Nol 3, Queens, New York

City Tunnel No. 3, Brooklyn, New York

Jamaica Water Supply, Queens

Beginning in 1897, the Jamaica Water Supply provided drinking water to parts of Queens from a series of wells and water storage tanks.  After the city took over the system it was shut down in 2007, and people in southeastern Queens were connected to the city's main water supply.  Some of the wells were polluted, but in general the water was not the highest quality.  With repairs about to be made on one of the large upstate supply tunnels, NYCDEP plans to reactivate some of the wells. The wells are not secret, but they are difficult to find.  Using various city inventories and databases I was able to locate all of them.  Most are located on residential blocks, fenced in, with a few telltale structures, but completely unmarked.  Others are in the midst of other industrial sites.  These photographs were made in December 2014.