The most vulnerable spot in the defenses of Havana is the aqueduct of Isabella II, or the Vento. The water is from the Vento Springs, pure and inexhaustable, nine miles out of Havana.
All three of the water supplies to Havana, the Zanja and the two aqueducts of Ferdinand VII and of the Vento, proceed from the Almendares and run their course near to each other, the farthest to the west being the Zanja and to the east the Vento.
At Vento Springs is constructed a large stone basin, open at the bottom, through which springs bubble. From this reservoir the new aqueduct leads. It is an elliptical tunnel of brick, placed under ground, and marked by turrets of brick and stone placed along its course.
From the Vento Reservoir the new aqueduct crosses the low valley south of Havana, following generally the Calzada de Vento, which becomes, near the Cerro, the Calzada de Palatino, to a point on the Western Railway marked 5 kilometers (about); hence the calzada and the aqueduct closely follow the railway for about a mile, terminating at a new reservoir.
The Vento water is the best thing Havana has, and indispensable. The old sources of supply are intolerable. The main water supply is the Zanja. Throughout the most of its course this river flows through unprotected mud banks; the fluids of many houses, especially in the Cerro ward which it skirts, drain into them; men, horses, and dogs bathe in it; dead bodies have been seen floating in it, and in the rainy season the water becomes very muddy. In fine, the Zanja in its course receives all which a little brook traversing a village and having houses and back yards on its banks would receive. The water can not be pure, and to those who know the facts the idea of drinking it is repulsive. This supply had long been insufficient to the growing city, and in 1835 the well-protected and excellent aqueduct of Ferdinand VII was completed. It taps the Almendares River a few hundred yards above filters mentioned, hence carried by arches to the east El Cerro, and for some distance nearly parallel to the Calzada del Cerro, but finally intersecting this. These works are succeeded by the Famous Vento. When Havana is fought for hereafter the fight will be at the Vento Springs. This remark is not made in the military notes, but the military men know it well. When General Miles expected to attack Havana he procured all the accessible surveys and detail of information, official and through special observation and personal knowledge obtainable of the water works. Life could not be sustained many days in the city of Havana without the water of the adorable Vento.
A special interest attaches to Havana, as it is to be a city under the control of the United States. The surface soil consists for the most part of a thin layer of red, yellow, or black earths. At varying depths beneath this, often not exceeding 1 or 2 feet, lie the solid rocks. These foundation rocks are, especially in the northern and more modern parts of the city toward the coast of the sea and not of the harbor, Quarternary, and especially Tertiary, formations, so permeable that liquids emptied into excavations are absorbed and disappear.
In other parts of the city the rocks are not permeable, and pools are formed. In proportion as the towns of Cuba are old, the streets are narrow. In Havana this peculiarity is so positive that pedestrians cannot pass on the sidewalks, nor vehicles on the streets. Less than one-third of the population live on paved streets, and these are as well paved and kept as clean, it is believed cleaner, than is usual in the United States. The remainder live on unpaved streets, which, for the most part, are very filthy. Many of these, even in old and densely populated parts of the city, are no better than rough country roads, full of rocks, crevices, mud holes, and other irregularities, so that vehicles traverse them with difficulty at all times, and in the rainy season they are sometimes impassible for two months. Rough, muddy, or both, these streets serve admirably as permanent receptacles for much decomposing animal and vegetable matter. Finally, not less, probably more, than one-half the population of Havana live on streets which are constantly in an extremely insanitary condition, but these streets, though so numerous, are not in the beaten track of the pleasure tourist.
In the old intramural city, in which live about 40,000 people, the streets vary in width, but generally they are 6.8 meters (about 22 feet) wide, of which the sidewalks occupy about 7.5 feet. In many streets the sidewalk at each side is not even 18 inches wide. In the new, extramural town, the streets are generally 10 meters (32.8 feet) wide, with 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) for the sidewalks, and 7 meters (23 feet) for the wagonway. There are few sidewalks in any except in the first four of the nine city districts.
More than two-thirds of the population live in densely inhabited portions of the city, where the houses are crowded in contact with each other. The average house lot does not exceed 27 by 112 feet in size. There are 17,259 houses, of which 15,494 are one-story, 1,552 are two stories, 186 are three stories, and only 27 are four stories, with none higher. At least 12 in every 13 inhabitants live in one-story houses; and as the total civil, military, and transient population exceeds 200,000 there are more than 12 inhabitants to every house. Tenement houses may have many small rooms, but each room is occupied by a family. Generally the one-story houses have four or five rooms; but house rent, as also food and clothing, is rendered so expensive by taxation, by export as well as import duties, that it is rare for workmen, even when paid $50 to $100 a month, to enjoy the exclusive use of one of these mean little houses; reserving one or two rooms for his family, he rents the balance. This condition of affairs is readily understood when it is known that so great a necessity as flour cost in Havana $15.50 when its price in the United States was $6.50 per barrel.
In the densely populated portions of the city the houses generally have no back yard, properly so called, but a flagged court, or narrow vacant space into which sleeping rooms open at the side, and in close proximity with these, at the rear of this contracted court are located the kitchen, the privy, and often a stall for animals. In the houses of the poor, that is, of the vast majority of the population, there are no storerooms, pantries, closets, or other conveniences for household supplies. These are furnished from day to day, even from meal to meal, by the corner groceries; and it is rare, in large sections of Havana, to find any one of the four corners of a square without a grocery.