Education

As history would have it, some designers are broadly associated with their works, like Frederick Law Olmsted with Central Park or John B. Jervis with the Old Croton Aqueduct. John James Robertson Croes was not one of those, yet many of us live in a more beautiful environment because of his talents.

Croes was born in 1834 in Richmond, Virginia, son of a clergyman and grandson of a Revolutionary War veteran. He attended the College of St James in Hagerstown, Maryland, and studied civil engineering, graduating in 1853.

Because the Old Croton Aqueduct was powered by gravity alone, the Aqueduct and the trail above it do not follow a straight line. Instead, to maintain the average 13.25-inches–per–mile downward slope of the tunnel on its journey from the Croton Reservoir, its path follows the ridges formed by ancient glaciers. Armed by the early and forceful exercise of eminent domain, New York City constructed its tunnel through public and private property in a single-minded quest to meet citizens’ urgent need for clean, abundant water.

On July 13, excited neighbors, youth groups, “parkies,” and city and state officials attended a groundbreaking for the NYC Parks Department’s $10 million project to renovate Adventure and Sunken playgrounds in Manhattan’s Highbridge Park. Adventure Playground is where the paved path to the Manhattan end of the High Bridge begins; adjacent Sunken Playground provides ADA-compatible access to that path.

On this joint walk with the Lenoir Nature Preserve’s Curator, Sara Cavanaugh, along the Old Croton Aqueduct met at the Lenoir Nature Preserve, 19 Dudley St., Yonkers, and enjoyed an easy 6-mile loop walk along the Aqueduct Trail, with time spent in the Preserve and on the Trail, exploring history and nature.