The curves which are used to change the direction of the line of the Aqueduct are generally formed with a radius of 500 feet; some have a radius of 1000 feet, and in a few instances larger ones are adopted, but the majority of them are of 500 feet radius.
The velocity of the water in the Aqueduct has been ascertained to be about one mile and a half an hour when it is 2 feet deep; this was determined by floating billets of wood from the Croton Dam to Harlem River and noting the time of their passage. Such an experiment would express the surface velocity and would give a greater velocity than it would be proper to attribute to the whole body of water in the Aqueduct; but the depth of water in the Aqueduct will be probably 4 feet as soon as it is brought into general use, and then there will be a corresponding increase in the velocity of the body of water. This velocity of a mile and a half an hour may be taken in general terms as the velocity of the water in the Aqueduct.
IX
F. B. Tower.
W. Bennett.
VIEW ABOVE THE CROTON DAM.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE OF AQUEDUCT.
The dam, built to form the Fountain Reservoir, is about six miles above the mouth of the Croton River. The reservoir forms a beautiful sheet of water in the lap of the hills in the wild region of the Croton, and has received the name of the “Croton Lake.”