Here’s a photograph that was apparently taken 150 years ago today, “The day when water was first turned into the aqueduct”:
water over the creek
And here’s some supporting evidence from The New-York Times December 6, 1863:
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON. …
OUR SPECIAL WASHINGTON DISPATCHES.
WASHINGTON, Saturday, Dec. 5. …
THE POTOMAC FOR DRINK.
Water from the Potomac was let into the Washington Aqueduct to-day. Heretofore the city has been supplied, though insufficiently, from neighboring creeks. The event was formally celebrated, the proceedings closing with a Corporation dinner. …
This is sort of a break from the war – but sort of not, and not just because it was undoubtedly a good idea to keep the United States’ capital well-watered. Work on the Washington Aqueduct “began in 1853 under the supervision of “Montgomery C. Meigs“, who served as Union Quartermaster General during the Civil War. The Georgia-born engineer remained loyal to the United States. We last heard from him in November 1863 when Meigs reported the Union success at Chattanooga to Secretary of War Stanton. According to the Wikipedia link the Washington Aqueduct was Meigs’ favorite antebellum project.
Rives’ 1859 drawing
The photo shows the Union Arch Bridge, which was designed by Alfred Landon Rives, a Virginian (son of William Cabell Rives ) who went with his state and eventually became “acting chief of the Engineer Bureau of the Confederate States”. Because of the war Rives’ name was replaced on a stone tablet on the bridge with Esto Perpetua. Furthermore, Jefferson Davis’ name was removed from a second tablet on the bridge that commemorated political leaders at the bridge work’s commencement and completion. Jefferson Davis was U.S. Secretary of War in 1853.
President Theodore ordered Davis’ name restored to the tablet in 1908. The Washington Aqueduct was fully completed in 1864 and is still in operation today.
dinosaur of 1858
