[Plate XV]. is a view of the Mill River Culvert: it is 25 feet span and 172 feet long. It is about half a mile east of the road leading from Tarrytown to Sing-Sing, and to follow the course of the stream which passes through it, it is three quarters of a mile to the Old Dutch Church, near Tarrytown, which is well known, and familiar to every one who has read Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
There is much of the wildness and beauty of nature about this place; the woods are standing close upon the work,—the stream which passes through the culvert displays its whitened crests as it tears along over the rocky bed, and utters its music until it is lost in the depth of the forest. The wild vines will soon climb the walls and cover them; vegetation will gather over the work until nature and art be harmoniously wedded.
XV
F. B. Tower.
W. Bennett. sc.
CROTON AQUEDUCT AT MILL RIVER.
From Mill River the Aqueduct passes the village of Tarrytown and through one tunnel and over several depressions and streams, reaching Jewell’s Brook which is seventeen and a half miles from the dam. This stream enters the Hudson River about two miles below Tarrytown. The distance from the mouth of the stream to the line of Aqueduct is only a quarter of a mile.
[Plate XVI]. is a view of the work at Jewell’s Brook. The culvert for the stream is 6 feet span and 148 feet long. The larger culvert for a private road is 14 feet span and 141 feet long. The wall which supports the Aqueduct at this valley is 50 feet high.
In this case, as in many others, the slope wall which covers the face of the embankment has an arch turned in it over the top of the culverts: the object of this is to prevent the direct pressure of the wall upon the top of the parapet wall, as it would tend to displace the coping or injure the parapet itself.