NYC Water System: Engineering, Waste & Microplastics

1667

First Public Well

Manhattan's first public well dug at Bowling Green. Residents relied on shallow wells, springs, and cisterns — water quality was poor and disease common.

1799

Manhattan Company

Aaron Burr founded the Manhattan Company, ostensibly to supply water but primarily to create a bank (later Chase Manhattan). Its wooden pipes and shallow wells proved inadequate.

1832

Cholera Epidemic

A devastating cholera outbreak killed 3,500+ New Yorkers, igniting public demand for a clean municipal water supply away from polluted local sources.

1842

Croton Aqueduct Opens

After 5 years of construction, the 41-mile Old Croton Aqueduct delivered water from the Croton River to a receiving reservoir at 42nd Street. Celebrated as one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century. The High Bridge over the Harlem River became an iconic landmark.

1890

New Croton System

Population growth outstripped supply. The New Croton Aqueduct (triple the capacity) and New Croton Dam broke ground — the dam, at 297 feet, was the tallest in the world at completion in 1906.

1905

Catskill System Begins

NYC Board of Water Supply authorized construction of the Catskill System — an audacious plan to tunnel through mountains and carry water from the Catskills 100+ miles south. The Ashokan Reservoir and Catskill Aqueduct were its centerpieces.

1915

Ashokan Reservoir Completed

The 122-billion-gallon Ashokan Reservoir began service. Entire towns (including West Hurley, Glenford, and others) were displaced, flooded, and erased from the map to create it.

1937

Delaware System Authorized

Supreme Court decree allowed NYC to tap the Delaware River watershed. Construction began on the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct — the longest continuous tunnel in the world.

1944

Delaware Aqueduct Opens

Delaware Aqueduct brought water from the Pepacton, Cannonsville, and Neversink Reservoirs. The entire system now supplied 1.2 billion gallons per day across 19 reservoirs spanning a watershed of nearly 2,000 square miles.

1970

Water Tunnel No. 3 Begins

Construction began on the largest capital project in NYC history — Water Tunnel No. 3, designed to provide redundancy for the aging Tunnels No. 1 and No. 2 which had never been shut down for inspection. Tunnel boring continued for 50+ years.

1997

Filtration Avoidance

NYC became the largest unfiltered water supply in the U.S. after EPA granted filtration avoidance waivers, contingent on aggressive watershed protection and land acquisition programs in the Catskills/Delaware watersheds.

2013

Tunnel No. 3 Manhattan Section

The Manhattan section of Water Tunnel No. 3 was activated, finally providing redundancy. The project had cost over $5 billion and spanned six decades.

2023

Croton Filtration Plant

After decades of delays and $3.2 billion in costs, the Croton Water Filtration Plant opened beneath Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx — the city's first drinking water filtration facility, processing up to 290 million gallons per day from the Croton system.