Is located under the same colonnade as the Pavilion, and less than ten
feet distant from it. When the Pavilion was being retubed, in 1868, a
new spring was discovered flowing from the east (the Pavilion and
nearly all the other springs flowing from the west). It has been
carefully tubed and christened the United States. It seems to be tonic
in its properties, with only a very slight cathartic effect. It is now
used for mixing with the still wines by our German citizens, who find
in it the virtues of their own Nassau Spring. There are very few of
the Saratoga waters that can be used successfully with the red and
white wines, the presence of a very large proportion of chloride of
sodium being considered an objection. The United States Spring seems
to fully answer the purpose, giving to the wines a rich flavor and
sparkling character.
It is a matter of surprise to visitors that two springs, welling up
their waters so near together, should yet be widely different. Where
nature in her subterranean laboratory obtains all the elements, and
how she can manage that from one crevice shall issue a water whose
ingredients shall never materially differ, and whose temperature shall
remain constant throughout the year, while within a few feet she sends
up an equally unvarying, and yet widely different spring, is indeed a
problem, and the oftener one reflects on subjects of this kind, the
oftener is the old fashioned observation repeated, that "let a man go
where he will, Omnipotence is never from his view."
THE WASHINGTON SPRING
Is situated in the grounds of the Clarendon Hotel, on South Broadway.
History.
This fountain was the first tubed in this mineral valley, being opened
by Gideon Putnam, in 1806. It was used for bathing purposes chiefly.
Dr. Steel writes of it in 1828, that it is "found of eminent service
when applied to old, ill-conditioned ulcers, and obstinate eruptions
of the skin." A cluster of bushes formed a shelter for the external
use of the water.
In 1858 a shaft eleven feet square was sunk round the spring to a
depth of thirty feet. The stream seemed to come from a lateral
direction, and a tunnel was excavated for a distance of thirty feet.
At this point the earth gave way, and the water and gas flowed in so
suddenly that the workmen hardly escaped with their lives, leaving
their tools behind them. In fifteen minutes 12,000 gallons of water,
and double that quantity of gas, filled the excavation. Rotary pumps,
worked by a steam engine, were insufficient to remove the water.
Another shaft, near the end of the tunnel, was sunk to a depth of
twenty-eight feet, when the water burst into this also, and it had to
be abandoned. A third shaft, twenty feet in diameter, and held by a
strong coffer dam, was sunk southeast of the former. When the rock was
reached two streams were found issuing from a fissure; one of them was
tubed, and water rose to the surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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