Education

The Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct educate the public about the history or the tunnel and trail.

SCHOOL TOURS LECTURES, WALKS AND TOURS NEWSLETTERS

Please find below some of our educational content.

Related Blog Entries

Author: 
FOCAAdmin

Our friends NYC H2O have partnered with the Watershed Agricultural Council in upstate NY to create a new series of StoryMaps: Agriculture and Water Quality. The Watershed Agricultural Council works with farmers to develop strategies that prevent agricultural runoff from flowing into our reservoirs. This partnership protects our city's water supply while also providing incentives and support to farmers.

Author: 
FOCAAdmin

We had over 200 attendees at our Zoom presentation on March 3rd!

Author: 
FOCAAdmin

Friend of the Old Croton Aqueduct and active walker Mark Garrahan received this book as a present for Christmas last year and brought it to our attention.

Published in 1923 by the American Geographic Society (not to be confused with the National Geographic Society which published the famed yellow-bordered magazine), it contains beautiful sketches and fascinating maps.

We were able to scan pages of interest to the Friends.

Thanks, Mark. Enjoy!

Author: 
Charlotte Fahn

The New York Public Library's exhibition of treasures includes several items relating to The Old Croton Aqueduct, including a set of brass keys that once unlocked the Old Croton Reservoir (which once stood on the spot that is now The New York Public Library.)

A New York Times article described the exhibition.

 

 

Photo by S Fahn
Author: 
Charlotte Fahn

One effect of the happily welcomed reopening of High Bridge Tower in 2021 was to turn attention to the Old Croton Aqueduct’s High-Service Works, of which the Tower was a part. In fact, some accounts refer to this elegant, octagonal granite structure on the northeast Manhattan skyline as the High-Service Tower.

Author: 
TTarnowsky

 

A lesser known fact of the career of Croton Aqueduct Chief Engineer John B. Jervis [shown above], is that he was the very first to run a steam locomotive on a length of railroad track in this country. He did so as a demonstration of the motive power of a self propelled locomotive in August of 1829 as an adjunct to the Delaware and Hudson Canal in Pennsylvania, which he also built as a private enterprise to deliver coal to Philadelphia and New York City along a 100 mile plus route, connecting with the Hudson River in Kingston, NY.

Author: 
FOCAAdmin

Guest post by Friends David and Susan Rosenzweig

On October 27, 2021, we drove to the Croton Gorge to view the dam. Considering the very heavy rain we had over the prior two days, we expected a voluminous amount of water going over the dam.

Our guess was correct!

About a quarter of a mile before we reached the dam, we could hear a thundrous noise. As we approached the bridge, the noise of rushing water was very loud and the spray was like rain.

Note the small tree on the dam's spillway.

 

Newsletter Issue: 
# 12, July 2002
Author: 
FOCAAdmin

The Friends' own Tom Tarnowsky presented a lecture on Zoom for the Yonkers Public Library in association with The Yonkers Historical Society on the history of the Old Croton Aqueduct and its relation to Yonkers. Enjoy!

Author: 
TTarnowsky

The Flickr site of the NYC Dept of Environmental Protection just posted these 2 images of the demolition of the aqueduct conduit in Central Park in 1931. These images show the original brick tunnel where it ended upon entering the Receiving Reservoir at approx West 85th St. The brick tunnel, showing a plastered inside surface here, continued to the southern division of the reservoir where it entered a gatehouse structure. When the water left the reservoir it continued downtown on 5th Ave.

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