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ADVOCACY EDUCATION PRESERVATION STEWARDSHIP

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

Friends Board Members and Advisors Charlotte Fahn, Lesley Yu Walter, President Mavis Cain, Joanna Reisman and Sara Kelsey attended the grand reopening of the High Bridge Tower on October 27, 2021.

The tower had been sealed shut for years and sheathed in scaffolding for part of the time. Now that it's open, guided tours to the top will resume. The New York Daily News called it "a soaring 200-foot 1872 structure that was essential in New York’s rise to global stature."

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