Nathaniel Altman writes in his book Sacred Water : “underground aqueducts have brought water from the Croton Reservoir to New York City since the early 1840s. The water flowed originally into a reservoir located in Central Park that could hold 180 million gallons. Soon realizing that even such a large amount of water could not be adequate for the needs of New York’s rapidly growing population, large tracts of land were purchased in upstate New York for a network of reservoirs surrounded by unspoiled forest. Sent downstate through an elaborate system of underground pipelines, these reservoirs continue to supply approximately 1.2 billion gallons of water to New York City daily.”
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