What's Left of New York's Lost Reservoir?
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
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In this video, we explore the fascinating history of New York's Croton Distributing Reservoir, which was once a critical component of the city's water infrastructure.
Built in the mid-19th century, the Croton Distributing Reservoir was an engineering marvel of its time, designed to provide New York City with a reliable source of clean drinking water. It was a massive structure, capable of holding up to 100 million gallons of water, and its construction required the removal of a significant portion of Murray Hill.
As we delve into the history of the reservoir, we'll learn about the challenges faced by the engineers who designed and built it, including the need to transport the massive stone blocks used to construct the reservoir from quarries as far away as New Jersey. We'll also learn about the role the reservoir played in the development of the city, providing water for everything from firefighting to the growth of the city's industries.
But the story of the Croton Distributing Reservoir is not just one of engineering and infrastructure. It's also a story of the people who lived and worked in New York City at the time, and how they relied on the reservoir for their survival. From the cholera epidemic that swept through the city in the mid-19th century to the devastating fire that destroyed much of the city's downtown in 1835, we'll explore the ways in which the reservoir played a critical role in the city's history.
Today, the Croton Distributing Reservoir is no longer in use, but its legacy lives on. As we explore its history, we'll gain a deeper appreciation for the remarkable engineering feats of the past, as well as the role that critical infrastructure plays in shaping the growth and development of our cities. Join us for a journey back in time to learn about one of New York City's most remarkable landmarks.
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Chapters:
02:09 - "New York's First Major Source of Fresh Water: The Collection Pond"
03:18 - "Why The Croton Aqueduct Needed a Reservoir: A Historical Look"
05:49 - "The Crucial Role of 5th Avenue in Early New York Waterworks"
08:40 - "The Construction of Croton Distributing Reservoir: A Marvel of Engineering"
11:08 - "How Croton Distributing Reservoir Transformed New York's Water Infrastructure"
12:22 - "What Happened to Croton Distributing Reservoir? A Look into its Demolition"
12:57 - "Demolished for New York's Library: The Fate of Croton Distributing Reservoir"
14:04 - "What Remains of Croton Distributing Reservoir Today: A Walkthrough"
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Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
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Ok.
hey dude can you please do a video about the round building at the bottom left in 1:40 and at 2:06 , I'm not from the US by the way and so I was always curios about that round structure since I discovered it in books?
@@M0A0R0k00W0Y0L0D0E I think that's Castle Clinton.
@@bunnywarren thanks a ton! 👍
Hydro Turbine Power.
The Old Croton Aqueduct runs right through my yard, and one of the stone vent towers is maybe 200 yards down the path. It's just something I've grown up with for over 40 years. This sparked my interest in it's history again. Pretty cool!
Impressive engineering for 1838. One of my ancestors was the contractor for a section of aqueduct near Sing Sing. John Jervis was the main engineer.
NYC has the world's largest unfiltered water supply and its engineering story is more than remarkable. Using nothing but gravity, 90% of the 1 billion gallons a day that feeds near 11 million people in and around NYC, comes nearly 90 miles from the Catskill Mountains while another 10% comes from the old Croton system in Westchester, Putnam and even Dutchess counties.
Not to mention, Power from Niagara Falls
We didn't build it, its all very old, well over 1000 years
…and it’s still a shit-hole.
@@togowack ?
Need I mention that this is the very reason you CANNOT get good pizza in ANY other state. Serious pizzerias out west actually have THAT water shipped to them. Urban myth? I think not!
I love that parts of the original structure are down there towards the lower sections, still visible. Bit like going through the Louvre in Paris and coming across a few sections of the medieval walls, still there, the past still echoing into the present.
Great narration, great information. It looks like parts of the old Croton Reservoir were used for foundations for the new library. So much history --- so little time.....
The base of liberty is is old Fort Wood built in 1807. It was already decommissioned on bedloe's Island when Bartholdi got the go-ahead for liberty in 1871.
All between the Lions
Ive got a story just like this from my little podunk home town, only its different. Years ago we had a Safeway grocery store that moved. The old building sat empty for many years. The county bought the property and made the justice center there in its place. To this day, you can go down into the jail, away from public eye, enter the pipe chase off the main hallway, and find the original exterior wall of the old Safeway store. Pretty cool.
I am astonished at the amount of detail you’re able to dredge up on your subject matter. Thanks for this deep dive into the reservoir (pun intended).
I'll give you a pass for using 'deep dive'...lol. There was a time that it was the most overused two-word phrase in existence and I grew to hate it....haha
You should try to get into the book depository under Bryant park. On the stairs down you can also see the original granite with depth markers left over from the reservoir.
Cool!
The pond you referenced as the city’s first fresh water source was actually called “The Collect Pond”, not the “collection” pond as you stated. Hence the namesake “Collect Pond Park” at Leonard and Lafayette Streets. The uneven pavement is the result of the original problematic landfill and draining of the pond location.
@@j.b.3825 I know. Every time he said it I cringed.
They mention the reservoir in "The Alienist" book. I've been intrigued ever since!
Same here!
Also by EL Doctorow in Waterworks
Your history of New York series is FASCINATING!! It's such a huge city that has gone through such gargantuan changes, that keeping track of it all is mind boggling.
Incredible! I was born and raised in Manhattan and I'm just discovering all this wonderful history!
Another great history lesson. Growing up in the Bronx, I love NYC history.
They have a book on where all the streets in the Bronx got their names. Alot of Generals in my area. Sheridan,Sherman, McClellan. That's where I learned where Tremont got its name. Tremont means 3 mountains. Mount Hope, Mount Eden & Mount Claremont.Growing up in the BX riding your bike as a child you got plenty of exercise pedaling up hills.
As I watched this excellent video I recalled the old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention".
And this is so true in that the necessity of more water led to new innovative ways to fill that need.
heck yeah,
i didnt know the reservoir is where the library stands! i learn something new today
Thats one main difference between American and European culture: in America they seem to demolish perfectly fine structures all the time, while in Europe they are preserved as long as they work and than they are preserved as historical sites and put to another use. That includes houses from the 17th century as well as hotels build in the 1960s and 1970s: in most cases they will be preserved and refurbished and repurposed as long as they are safe to operate.
America still does a really good job at saving historical artifacts and buildings and have definitely gotten better as days go by. Just around the Mid-Atlantic we have coastal defense WW2 era bases, old Dupont powder mills, the USS New Jersey, various colonial churches houses and even historical sections of whole towns that have been preserved.
It's not crazy in the days of this old reservoir once it out lived its usefulness and demolished before it had any significant historical significance.
Napoleon might disagree with you
Such a great show! Thank you for exploring and sharing.
The wall at the north end of the fields north of the Great Lawn that can be seen behind the police precinct from the 86th St Transverse is the remains of the Croton Reservoir in Central Park that is mentioned in the vid
The fact that the world's fair burned down right next to all that water is crazy
9:25 "Tombs of prisons." It's a city jail given the nickname "The Tombs." it's still in operation.
More NYC history please
Indeed!
I helped revitalized the new system that feeds water from the upstate region of new york. Its an incredible system the uses reservoirs and gravity to feed water 200+ miles down to the city.
I’ve been eyeballing machinist jobs with the nyc water dept. Did you work along side anyone in that role? If so, do you remember what kind of stuff they actually did?
It's amazing seeing nyc clean. That was a quick 15 min. I could listen to your history all day.
I'd like to see an episode about the Miller Highway (Elevated West Side Highway).
Very pretty structure.
Your dedication to the detail of what you present is astonishing.
I thank you sir, for actual history. You know, instead of the braindead sensationalistic fluff RUclips is famous for.
Well done!
Fantastic job, thanks for the historical look back.
Interesting. I'd heard of the old Croton Reservoir but was not aware that the site is now the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. The Library is one of my favorite NYC buildings. I hope it lasts for many years longer than the reservoir did.
i love that the bricks r still there
7:32 It's so sad how everyone has to edit themselves
That's exactly what I was thinking when I read the newspaper type.
He didn't have to. He's reading an old document, and I think it would have been fine.
@@gy2gy246 he had to if he didn't want to be demonetized
What would anyone have gained by hearing that terminology? It has no place in modern language and he provided the article. Sounds like y’all just want to say it and you’re pissed you can’t.
I knew what he meant and why he didn’t say it.
Hard r
One thing I love about New York is how little fragments of historical places get incorporated into the modern city. The Highline is an example of this.
I love the Highline.
Everything old is new again
The history of NYC is one of my favorite subjects. Great job and thanks!!!!!!
Thank you for the history of this Resivoir! As a native New Yorker, its Fascinating to now know about the NYPLs relation with it and the Worlds Fair!
Can you please also do a history of the Ridgewood Resivoir in Queens, along with its Force Tube pump and the Comduit that supplied it?
keep making these dope videos you keep me so intrigued and interested every time! 💯
Never knew the library is where that aqueduct once stood
Crazy! I love that library when I was a kid in the 90s
Excellent presentation!
great reporting
Wow..How interesting…Thank You
Outstanding work dude👌
Engineering on a massive scale is very interesting . Sorting and grading for watershed is important.
This was fascinating, thankyou😊. There is no such thing as wasted knowledge it's just information you haven't used yet.❤
Executive summary: People in NYC were thirsty, built a big cistern, later tore it down when it became outdated.
Fascinating! Thank you so much!
The media is alot better now than it was in the 80's when i started this project
Great programme! But the background thumping music is distracting.
There is no music.
Outstanding!!
Thanks again John in Chicago
i never knew about this before, thanks for a great video
Awesome video... thanks 👍
I've never heard of an above ground reservoir.
IIRC the 'collection Pond was the location of the infamous Five Points...for a good history of Manhattan read Herbert Asbury's "The Gangs on New Youk'...I used that book as a basis for numerous college (1967 - 1971) papers
well.. that's the first time I've ever heard of that!.. shame we loose so much interesting old architecture, but we HAVE to keep changing I suppose.
Hello :) Got to see an amazing CGI version of the reservoir in The Alienist tv show, that’s how I knew about it. Thanks for the video 😊💎
My favorite song by the Ramones- "Croton Hop" 🎉
I see on the map there were apparently tombs where the collection pond park now stands? Yet there is no mention of a graveyard, today.
I'm also a little confused at the photo about the moved graveyard which was cited as moved for Croton Res - the caption says it was on 20th st and 1st and 2nd aves? How was that needed to be moved, since the res was on 5th and 40th?
Fascinating
The collection pond sounds like the very same situation that the New Town Creek, also in NY, is currently experiencing; albeit not a reservoir at all.
Great 👍 video!! 😊❤🎉
It was called the Collect Pond----not the Collection Pond. The park is Collect Pond Park.
I find it very odd that a video with 102,000+ views (2/28/23) has only 82 comments. Are they being deleted?
Due to all the negative comments that are here, I don't think so. It's like if they did delete comments then they deleted the positive ones.
....I remember read that the Library replaced the Croton Reservoir in Asbury's book...
So there were two croton reservoirs, one where the library of bryant park is and another in the middle of central park? Also what's that huge building seen next to the reservoir at the start of the video?
That was the Crystal Palace, which I dont know the actual name of specifically for New York but they had these structures in Paris London, St. Louis, anywhere there was a World Fair too.
Many times in a cities' story, these buildings set on fire in some way during a catastrophic city fire or mishap.
Good eye though, it is huge.
Very beautiful.
What’s fascinating about these stories is how in the past we had no problem tearing down the old to build the new. But today we struggle to get anything built because so many want things to stay exactly as they are
Industrial Society and its consequences
because we're past the peak. we don't build interesting or beautiful stuff anymore. that's why old buildings should be preserved, instead of building some steel/glass/concrete box monstrosity in their place
@@gatergates8813 Progress is not a negative consequence. If our ancestors thought like that we'd be still living in thatched roof houses.
@Doug F a properly built thatched roof was as strong and waterproof as most modern homes, could be built and repaired easily with simple to source local materials, and looks pretty awesome too.
@@dougf9900 there is a difference between progress and decline. new doesn't mean better
Good documentary but you forgot to say the dimensions. You can use the American standard measuring unit. Football fields .
Very informative video
Great info. 😎
The Bank of America Tower at 42nd Street and Sixth Ave glass exterior is partly inspired by the old Crystal Palace.
Surf Sharks protect the West River now.
The construction of all the canals, sea walls and stone structures, are ALWAYS understated. Lets here about the men who actually laid the stones. Who were these people? What company, back in the day, had the wherewithal, to source, transport, cut, and assemble the stones? It doesn't matter, because we believe ALL chroniclers of history, to point, of believing, both conflicting historical narratives. New York had hundreds of millions of tons, of stone and brick laid, in about 20 years. Who were the men who actually did that?
Great video.
Beautiful.
Architecturally, that reservoir would have fit in perfectly on the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS.
I am pretty sure the original set designers looked at Egypt amongst other things as inspiration for their work- as both meant to be well hot for starters
The elfin tower sits there today !
I bet it would be a nightmare tryna build under it with the subway if it were still there
And today you can’t go a block with out Indu uffin hitting you with a hammer 🔨 😂
is the engine sfx playing all the way from start to end?
Excellent work, but the pond you referred to was called The Collect Pond, not Collection.
At 1:29 1:39 and 2:05 what going on with that round building now in the water ?
Intro music stills scares the heck out of me. Lol.
I remember a reservoir in riverdale in the Bronx.
I don’t know about other people, but the moving background is very distracting to me. It makes it hard for me to focus on the central image.
I am very interested in this topic (old New York), but I can only visually focus on one thing at a time.
Nothing is "fresh" in NYC. Im sure that water was full of wholesome goodness
he said "unfiltered" but it's not untreated.
@@rupe53 I guess for turn of the century water it was good enough. Had to drink something back then I suppose.
@@daveh9551 ... you have to remember that the lower Hudson River was basically an open sewer in those days and people took steamboats almost 100 miles north just to get fresh air.... in the Catskills.
Curious if you could or have done anything on the Philadelphia Pennsylvania's Fairmont water works and reservoir along with the art museum that's now there... I just had a lot of headaches and issues with another supposed History Channel trying to start a bunch of conspiracy theories over what the art museum was built over... I subscribe to their channel because I like history as I like yours but yeah not quite what I was looking for so just thought I'd ask if you could maybe do a video on that sometime, I research to quite a lot of it myself.
Wow, nice segue 🤣😂
It was known in the city as the Collect Pond.
My city, Lisbon in Portugal have a much greater water works build 2 centuries earlier than the New York system... ;)
I wonder if the water was treated in some way with the surfaces being exposed like that.
And why was the Hudson not a water source? Not currently, but then.
Brackish water near the city. Plus the Hudson is kind of a chute of trash and sediment.
Love this piece, but when reading directly from a newspaper source and quoting it for a historic retelling like this, you cannot change any of the language, no matter how offensive. I an a genealogist and know all too well that many things I uncover are not PC today.
Tartaric..?
Very interesting
I'm a New Yorker and I did not know this. Thank you for the education!
“Sometimes, in order to create, you must first destroy”
Collect Pond was the area of The Five Points ?
Good video But it's called "Collect Pond" not "Collection Pond"
I couldn't lose a whole reservoir and I can't find fk all
IKR!!?
iirc…The reservoir was featured in the serial killer thriller “The Alienist”.
Nicolas Cage and Ed Norton at 5:49.....
History is his story..
It looks kind of similar to old Japanese walls
Does anyone know if that is the library that John Jacob Astor had built after he died?
Cool