Much has been written about the Croton Dam as an engineering masterpiece of the 19th century, there is an excellent article by the author "Samsebeskazal" "The Croton Dam - an Engineering Wonder of the World". lots of good photos …
But I want to tell not so much about the dam itself, or the aqueduct through which water was supplied to New York, but about construction technologies, which from antiquity somehow suddenly turned out to be in the 19th century and, moreover, were not forgotten even at the beginning of the 20th century!
But first, all the same, about the Croton Dam and let the readers forgive me, who have already looked at the article on the link, I will show some photos again, but from a different point of view …
Croton water system consists of three components - a dam with a reservoir, an aqueduct and a reservoir.
This is not a bridge - this is the Croton aqueduct, metal spans were made in the 20th century for shipping..
Promotional video:
And this is how the aqueduct looked before..
And this ominous, cyclopean structure, the Croton reservoir …
The history of the construction is somewhat "strange", allegedly it began in 1836, there was some kind of old dam … and finished in 1906. Let's take a look at the construction site …
A cable car-type system was made that allowed moving, transporting blocks weighing up to six tons, I don't know how true this is … the cable car system on the blocks is clearly visible.
However, there are several photos that cast doubt on the fact that construction is taking place here, and not reconstruction with the help of antique architects "ordered" from Italy.
The last photo clearly shows that it was a destroyed structure and it is being restored … this is of course my hypothesis, but it is too good for all the destruction that befell the cities of America by the middle of the 19th century … well, then there was an EXHIBITION of course in New York in 1854, they don't like to talk about it … but for some reason it also burned down!
Well, God bless them, with the destruction … one way or not, but the dam was restored or built! I want to lead readers to the idea that antiquity, which we know with aqueducts, as an integral attribute, is the end of the 18th century at its best! I found a rare photo - the Croton aqueduct from the inside … don't pay attention to the naked woman in it … this is Mira Kim, an Asian woman who loves being photographed naked, but thanks to her unusual passion, we can see the aqueduct from the inside … and it is quite antique - sawn blocks on Romanesque cement - lime streaks on the walls.
Now let's compare the obviously antique aqueducts that miraculously stood for thousands of years …
So what's the difference with the 19th century aqueduct ??? Two thousand years between them ???
And this is an aqueduct in Sevastopol, it was allegedly restored by the occupation troops during the Crimean campaign
And this "millionth bridge" is also an aqueduct, in Moscow, built at the end of the 19th century, as it suddenly turned out that there is practically no drinking water in Moscow … by the way, it turns out that many aqueducts built in the 19th century are called bridges, well, the bridge is not an aqueduct, its construction in the 19th century is no longer striking a contradiction.
I would like to draw your attention to the holes in the blocks, if these are large blocks, there must be holes, larger or smaller, round or square …
No one dragged anything with his hands or on a hump, made "holes" hammered a pin with a ring and hooked it to a system of ropes and blocks and moved … here is antigravity for you!
So antiquity, this is the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, and then, somewhere in this time, something terrible happened, that they tried to forget and knock it out of our heads. Here's an interesting photo of the Istanbul aqueduct … you see, and Stanbul got it not bad …