RARE EARLY STEREOVIEWS OF HIGH BRIDGE AQUEDUCT

Copyright Friends of the High Bridge, LTD, with permission. All rights reserved.
Click on picture above to enlarge

While there are many old photographs and lithographs depicting the High Bridge, there are relatively few actual photographs, or in this case, stereographs, of the High Bridge taken during the period of time from when it was completed in 1848, and 1861, when the third tube was added to increase the capacity of the the aqueduct, and the height of the aqueduct was raised to accommodate the new tube, and the pedestrian walkway was altered.

Notice that on the two stereographs above, on the sides of the deck of the bridge, there are walls which are higher than the center pedestrian walkway.  These pictures were clearly taken before the larger center tube was installed during the 1861-1862 enlargement when the center tube was added. 

Below is a side view of the aqueduct during this period.

When altered, the new tube was placed between and slightly above the other two original tubes resulting in the surface of the pedestrian walkway on top having to be raised about six feet. See the illustration below.

Illustration from 

The Water Supply of the City of New York, 1658-1895

By Edward Wegmann

This, in turn, eliminated the walls on the walkway.  Actually, the walls are still there but the surface was raised to a level higher than the top of the walls.  The walls were then raised a few feet to allow the new surface of paver bricks to be level to the edge. A railing was installed to protect the pedestrians from falling off. Notice also that this (the original configuration of the deck of the bridge) is the configuration that shows in the sketch of Poe crossing the High Bridge from presumably the late 1840s. The first two stereoviews appears to have been taken facing toward Manhattan. There is no pumping station, reservoir or tower visible either.


Notice also that the men in the picture are wearing top hats resembling stove pipes, which were all the rage in the 1850s. The picture of Abraham Lincoln on the right in his stove top hat should be familiar to most readers.

We are not aware of other photographics picture of the deck of the bridge from before the center tube was added. The pictures above were taken between 1848, when the High Bridge was originally completed and about 1860, when the construction of the center tube started.  Most likely this pictures were taken some time during the 1850s.

Here (below) is another photograph of the deck just as they are installing the brick pavers after the third tube was installed (c. 1862-3).  Note that the bricks come up to the top of the wall.

High Bridge, c. 1862-3

Here is the High Bridge during the installation of the third tube, before the brick pavers were installed:

The picture below is from the period of time in 1927-9 when they removed the arches in the Harlem River and replaced them with the steel arch.

You should be able to see the original top of the walls (horizontally oriented cross section) with the additional stone (square cross section) added to raise the wall making the deck level such that the brick pavers can clear the new third tube.

Also note the building on top of the hill to the right of the High Bridge in the first three photos of the High Bridge above. It is harder to see the building in the first photo, but you can clearly make out the pattern of the windows and the shape of the building in both photos.  If you have any doubts, look at this next picture.

The building is still up there on the right, but now you see the tower, the reservoir and the pumping station.  Also, note the brick pavers all the way to the top surface of the walls and the railings installed.

last modified 5/17/2016

Happy 167th Birthday to the High Bridge!

July 4, 2015 is the 167th birth date of the opening of the High Bridge Aqueduct.  It was on July 4, 1848 that the first opening ceremony took place.  That was only 72 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the First Continental Congress.  At the time of the original opening of the High Bridge there were only two tubes carrying water over the Harlem River. The third, and largest tube, would not be completed for another 26 years, and the High Bridge Water Tower was, also, years away from being built. Attending the opening ceremony were a whole host of politicians and dignitaries, including the Mayor of New York City, William V. Brady, and Governor John Young. President James K. Polk was busy in Washington, D.C. on that day (see below).

The Croton Aqueduct which traversed from the reservoir created from the dam of the Croton River in northern Westchester to the reservoir at 42nd Street had been completed in 1842 (see commemorative medal below), but the crossing of the river was accomplished, not by a bridge, but rather by a siphon tube under the river.  The High Bridge was completed, some six years later, on July 4, 1848 at a considerable additional cost. The High Bridge was built so that navigation of the Harlem River would not be impeded.  The irony is that some 79 years later, in 1927, the central portion of the High Bridge was replaced with a steel span to further improve the navigation.

The opening of the High Bridge in New York City in 1848 coincided, to the day, with an elaborate cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. that was attended by President James K. Polk and other dignitaries, among whom were Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, both members of the House of Representatives and future presidents themselves. The Washington Monument itself took another 36 years to complete, delayed by politics, financing, and civil war.   At this same ceremony photographer Mathew Brady took a picture of special attendee Dolley Madison, the wife of the fourth President of the United States. She was then 80 years old.

Dolley Madison, July 4, 1848

Later on in the day Polk signed the Peace Treaty with Mexico, ending the Mexican War.  He also proudly proclaimed the new flag of the United States to then have 30 stars with the annexation of Wisconsin as the 30th State on May 29, 1848. 

In Seneca Falls, NY on this same day the Women's Declaration at the Seneca Falls Convention was signed, using the model of the US Declaration of Independence, forthrightly demanded that the rights of women as right-bearing individuals be acknowledged and respected by society. It was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men. This marks the beginning of the Women's activist movement for equality by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. 

Below is the commemorative medal issued on the opening day of the Croton Aqueduct and Reservoir on July 4, 1842:

last modified November 10, 2015