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C602
Big Apple, Big Thirst

Jeffrey Syken

Before it was “The Big Apple,” New York City was a small village concentrated on a few acres at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Surrounded by salt, brackish and/or polluted surface water, well-water supplied the town with its fresh water needs. By the early 19th Century, the town was fast becoming a city ever expanding northward. A catastrophic fire in 1835 made it abundantly clear to the city fathers that if New York City was to grow and prosper, it needed a reliable supply of fresh water from a source other than local wells.

In 1848, the Croton Aqueduct System opened supplying New York City with fresh water from a distance of over forty miles to the north. It was a major accomplishment and allowed the city to expand rapidly. Even so, it was clear that if the city was to grow outward and upward, it required an even greater and more reliable supply of fresh water. Thus in 1905 work began on Water Tunnel Number One which would supply New York City with water from the Delaware Water Shed one-hundred and fifty miles distant in the Catskill Mountains. It opened in 1917 and Water Tunnel Number Two opened in 1936.

There was one major flaw in both tunnels; they could not be shut down for maintenance/repair because the valves were corroded and inoperable. This complete dependence on just two un-repairable tunnels and a lack of redundancy was the cause of great concern to a series of mayors and governors. So it was that in 1970 work began on Water Tunnel Number Three – a civil engineering project greater in scope than the building of the Panama Canal. It would be sunk to a depth of eight-hundred feet, present unprecedented problems and cost the lives of twenty-four Sandhogs, but if the city was to continue to quench its one-billion gallon per day thirst for water, failure was not an option.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.


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NY PE & PLS: You must choose courses that are technical in nature or related to matters of laws and ethics contributing to the health and welfare of the public. NY Board does not accept courses related to office management, risk management, leadership, marketing, accounting, financial planning, real estate, and basic CAD. Specific course topics that are on the borderline and are not acceptable by the NY Board have been noted under the course description on our website.

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