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Reservoir Oval, Norwood, The Bronx

The Williamsbridge Reservoir Keeper's House is the only surviving building in New York City associated with the Bronx and Byram Rivers water system. Particularly between 1884 and 1906, this system served the critical function of supplying the burgeoning western section of the Bronx and helped the city to bridge the gap in the years between the construction of the Old and New Croton Aqueducts. The Bronx River portion of the system was constructed between 1880 and 1889, under the supervision of George W. Birdsall, chief engineer of the Croton Aqueduct in the New York City Department of Public Works.

The fifteen-mile Bronx River pipeline was completed in 1884, but the Williamsbridge Reservoir was not finished until 1889. The Keeper's House, located at the northeast end of the reservoir, was constructed in 1889-90 by contractor Terence A. Smith. L-shaped in plan, the two-and-a-half-story house is built of rock-faced, variegated gray-tan gneiss ashlar with smooth, speckled-gray granite trim, including keyed enframements. In 1925, when it was no longer needed, the reservoir was drained; it was later converted into a playground. The Keeper's House, after five decades as a private residence, was purchased in 1998 by the Mosholu Preservation Corp., a non-profit organization active in neighborhood improvement in Norwood.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

The Water Suoolv of New York Citv in the Nineteenth The Bronx and Bvram Rivers Water Supply System

Until the mid-nineteenth century, New York City did not have an adequate and reliable source of fresh water. Citizens were forced to subsist on water from the Collect pond, various wells and pumps, and cisterns. But the serious pollution of these water sources, which were sometimes linked with diseases and epidemics, along with general civic filth and periodic fires exacerbated by lack of water, posed major problems. These were especially aggravated by the rapid growth of the population. Manhattan island, moreover, is located amidst saltwater estuaries, presenting substantial obstacles to bringing in potable water.

As early as 1798, several plans were advanced to divert water from the Bronx River to Manhattan, but these were not implemented. After decades of discussion, an independent Water Commission was authorized by the state legislature in 1834 to plan and construct a water system. The city finally obtained a supply of fresh water in 1842 through the gravity-fed Croton Aqueduct, which was begun in 1837 and completed in 1848. An innovative engineering achievement, an outstanding (if expensive) public works project, and one of the first major municipal water systems in the United States, the Croton Aqueduct was planned under chief engineer David B. Douglass, the leading proponent of the Croton River as water source, but built under chief engineer John B. Jervis.

Water emanating from the Croton River and Reservoir in Westchester County, N.Y., traveled 41 miles through an embanked tunnel, across the High Bridge over the Harlem River/ to a receiving reservoir in what later became Central Park and then to a distributing reservoir at Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street. An additional water supply system became a municipal necessity after the Civil War with the explosion of the city's population, accompanied by the emergence of indoor plumbing and ever-increasing water usage. However, attempts were first made to increase the capacity of the water flow of the existing Croton system, and extensions were constructed. These included a new receiving reservoir in Central Park, alterations to the High Bridge, and the High Bridge Water Tower and reservoir/ A hydrographic survey of the Croton River watershed in 1857-58 resulted in plans for fourteen additional reservoirs outside the city; this plan was mostly carried out between 1866 and 1911. The (Old) Croton Aqueduct remained the city's principal source of water until 1890.

In 1870, the New York City Department of Public Works was established under Commissioner William M. ("Boss") Tweed, and the Croton Aqueduct came within its jurisdiction. After Tweed's conviction on various graft charges in 1873, the department was headed by Allan Campbell, who promoted a plan to utilize the Bronx and Byram Rivers as the next municipal water source. Of immediate concern was the development and water needs of the western portion of the Bronx, formerly part of Westchester County, annexed as the 23"* and 24* Wards of New York City on January 1,1874. Opponents of Campbell's plan, led by reformers in the Union League Club and others, fearing further departmental corruption, advocated a New Croton Aqueduct under the control of an independent commission. Droughts in 1876-77 and 1880-81 added to anxieties about the adequacy of the city's water. Eventually, both systems were constructed, but the more modest and less expensive Bronx and Byram plan was the first one to be implemented, due largely to strain

Capella on 03.10.2011 between 22:20 and 22:21 CEST through Carey mask.

The Carey mask used here has been composed of parts of a Bahtinov mask which has been calculated (by "astrojargon dot net") for a focal length of 100 mm and an aperture of 195 mm. The Carey angles are 10° and 20°.

These images are remakes of similar ones which have been taken with a focal length of 1000 mm. This time the focal length was 3000 mm and a little more detail should be visible in the spectra. In addition the spectra have no longer overexposed areas.

The image above shows star trails due to the long exposure time of 5 seconds. Due to different angles between the spectra and the star trail direction the thickness of the spectra is different. For some spectra their structure along the time coordinate seems to be the same, for others not. The thinner spectra do not resolve this structure as good as the broader ones do. I think, this structure is due to seeing.

Below is an image taken with nearly the same parameters (exposure time was 6 s) but some small vibrations have been introduced to the lens-camera-system by tapping five times during the exposure with a finger on the lens housing (tapping had a time delay which can be seen in the image). Such small vibrations have another impact on the diffration pattern than seeing.

Filter: Carey mask (6000x6000), black ink on transparent overhead sheet, approximately 725 ppi
Lens: catadioptric system 5.6 / 1000 on 3x tele converter (MC) with modified lens mount adapter (equivalent to 18 / 3000)
Camera: DSLR (APS-C)
Mount: ball head on wooden tripod
Focusing: manual with live preview
Shutter release: remote with mirror lock-up
Exposure: Av, + 1 / 3 EV, 5 s (above), 6 s (below), ISO 800, AWB
Image processing: original 5184x3456 images cropped to 1800x800 and merged to the final image, hot pixels not removed, white separator line added