While murmurs sooth each awful interval
Of ever-falling waters; shrouded Nile,
Eridanus, and Tiber with his twins,
And palmy Euphrates; they with dropping locks
Hang o’er their urns, and mournfully among
The plantive echoing ruins, pour their streams.’”
Ruins of Rome.
HISTORY
OF THE
PROGRESSIVE MEASURES FOR SUPPLYING
THE
CITY OF NEW-YORK WITH WATER.
As early as 1774, when the population of the city of New-York was only twenty-two thousand, the Corporation commenced the construction of a reservoir and other works for supplying water; and for the purpose of defraying the expense of the undertaking, issued a paper money, amounting to two thousand five hundred pounds, under the denomination of “Water Works Money,” and bonds were executed in favor of certain individuals for land and materials to the amount of eight thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds more.