Illustrations of the Croton AqueductTower, F. B. (Fayette Bartholomew)
History
Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct
Tower, F. B. (Fayette Bartholomew)
Croton Aqueduct (N.Y.)
Plate VI. is a view of an entrance ventilator; this stands on one side
of the Aqueduct, where the masonry of the side wall is enlarged for
its base; we can descend from the door and gain an entrance to the
channel-way by an opening in the side of the roofing arch. The sill of
the door is about 12 feet above the bottom of the channel-way.
[Illustration: VI
_F. B. Tower._ _Gimber._
ENTRANCE VENTILATOR]
Those not intended for an entrance stand directly over the top of the
Aqueduct and are groined into the roofing arch.
Besides these Ventilators, there are openings 2 feet square in the top
of the roofing arch, every quarter of a mile: they are covered with a
flag stone and the place is marked by a small stone monument projecting
above the surface of the ground. These may be useful to obtain entrance
to the Aqueduct, or to afford increased ventilation should it ever
become necessary.
CULVERTS.
Where streams intersect the line of Aqueduct, culverts are built to
allow them to pass under it. They are simply a stone channel-way built
under the Aqueduct of such form and dimensions as will allow the stream
to pursue its natural direction without causing injury to the work. The
foundation of these culverts is formed by laying down concrete, upon
which an inverted arch of cut stone is laid forming the bottom of the
water-way: side walls of stone are built and surmounted by an arch of
stone. The span, or width of water way, of the culverts built, varies
from 1½ foot to 25 feet. Those of 1½ foot span have a square form for
the water-way, and are constructed by making a foundation of concrete,
upon which a flooring of well dressed stone is laid forming the bottom
of the water-way, and from this, side walls are built and covered by a
course of thick stone flagging well dressed and closely fitted. At each
end of the culvert a deep wall is built underneath so as to prevent
the water from doing injury by undermining it. Buttresses and wing
walls are built at each end of the culvert to guide the water to and
from the channel-way, and a parapet wall is built over the top of the
channel-way at each end to sustain the embankment of earth over the
culvert. These wing walls and parapets have various forms; sometimes
the parapet is built across the top of the culvert, and the wing walls
built at right angles to it, and sloping down to the buttresses, and
sometimes the wing walls and parapet form one continuous wall of a
semi-circular form, the top sloping up from the buttresses in a plane
parallel with the slope of the embankment covering the Aqueduct above.
These culverts are permanently constructed, and in preparing the plans
for them much skill has been displayed in adapting the form and size
which the circumstances required, and much taste displayed in the
design for their construction.
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