Customer Reviews

Water for Gotham: A History

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When we turn on the tap we take it for granted that pure and wholesome water is supposed to come out. For Americans in the early 1800's, the supply of fresh water to New York City was an achievement on the order of the moon landing in our era -- carrying a river for 40 miles through hills and valleys and across rivers to a desperate island city.

The amazing story of New York's water supply has long been known to historians, infrastructure buffs and residents of the Westchester villages through which the beautiful Old Croton Aqueduct still passes. Gerard Koeppel's new book, Water for Gotham: a History, makes this story accessible to all.

Unlike previous works on the subject, which have emphasized the engineering accomplishments of the Croton Aqueduct, this book explores New York City's social and political history with a liveliness and wit that make the turbulent decades following the American Revolution come to life. Experience the terror of cholera and great fires, the antics of scoundrels and demagogues, and the heights of idealism, dedication and genius that are all intertwined in this epic tale.

Mr. Koeppel's book is impressively researched and is a true contribution to our understanding of New York history. That a work of non-fiction is so lively and engrossing is another reminder that truth is stranger than fiction.

Gerard Koeppel has done a remarkable job of ferretng out material and documents which demonstrate how long it took, how much cash it took, how much politicking it took to get the simple compound H2O to complex NYC. I don't mean to be glib about this. As one reviewer has noted, Manhattan without fresh supplies of water would've been another unliveable coastal town.

Just like DeWitt Clinton's Erie Canal brought goods in and out of the city, the many visionaries (Burr[for politicial and banking reasons] and Colden [for practical reasons]) gave the city an enormous insurance policy for its future which is difficult to ignore.

This book is a compelling dedication to the people who saw the need for the reservoir system and made it a reality. Sometimes the book gets bogged down with details, but that's to be expected. What wasn't expected, by this reader, was the author's perserverance and dedication to this important matter, and for that he deserves the highest accolades.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS, and THE FIVE POINTS CONCLUDED, A Novel

It is about time that an in-depth book on the subject of New York's water supply was completed. The author has done a fabulous job of putting a highly readable work together that brings to life a period we rarely think about and a topic hardly considered in our hurried modern lives. Reality, however, is that New York without water would be just another coastal town. Those interested in a photographic history of the same topic should seek The Croton Dams and Aqueduct which will be publihsed by Arcadia Press in August of 2000.

In "Water for Gotham," Gerard Koeppel tells in a compelling way what could have been--ahem--a dry story. Its focus is on the civic history of a nascent metropolis thirsty for water, the self-interested politicians who used that thirst for their own ends, and the few dedicated visionaries who labored against man and nature to bring cold, clean water to Manhattan. Koeppel paints a vivid picture of life in New York from colonial days through the early-1800s, when the Croton Aqueduct was opened.

One of the few significant criticisms I have about the book is that while it frequently discusses structures, equipment, and emerging technologies, little effort is made to clearly explain and describe them. While the book is not meant to be a technical or engineering review, better explanations (as opposed to cursory descriptions) of some of the methods of construction (e.g., dams, the aqueduct) would have been appreciated.

A second criticism is that the book ends too abruptly with the arrival of water through the Croton Aqueduct, with only passing mention of later developments to the City's extensive water supply system. An additional chapter on how the other reservoirs in the system were created--sometimes through contentious legal battles and property condemnation--and the disposition of some of the original Croton structures, would have been welcome.

Notwithstanding these minor quibbles, the book is enjoyable, informative and enlightening. Recommended.

It is a wonderful overview of the problems facing New York and its water supply from the time of the Dutch up through the creation of the Croton system. As with the best books, the reader not only learns about the ins and outs of creating a trustworthy water supply, but along the way, you learn a lot about the culture of post-Revolutionary War New York.

The book is a good reminder that political considerations are not a new situation facing decisions about science and public policy, but that people were wrestling with these same issues 200 years ago.

As a nice addition to the book, the maps scattered througout the book are very helpful in understanding the natural landscape of the island before New Yorkers so visibly changed this landscape to make it unrecognizable to someone from the 18th Century.

It would be interesting to know how current water activists who oppose any modifications to natural watersheds would react to the wholesale changes which New York undertook in reshaping the natural landscape and whether they would advocate undoing all of these changes, thus debilitating modern New York.

A small quibble is that this book only touches on the actual hydrology of the island. It is more of a social and political history rather than a scientific explanation of why New York struggled with water shortages as its population grew.

Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how the facts of hydrology in an actual location interacts with the sociology, finance, and politics of that place, not to mention people who want a better picture of the U.S. in the early 19th Century.

I have always had a great interest in NYC and surrounding history. The book Gotham, one of the greatest history books ever, covers everything, BUT, this book brings you the rough, tough difficult rise of NYC from the perspective of WATER. This resource we take for granted everyday literally shaped the development and the problems of that development of NYC.

While much of the book deals with the politics and fights (same thing) to find the right water source for a modern day reservoir, namely the Croton, I particularly enjoyed the earlier parts of the book.

My only complaint about the book and understand it was a necessary evil to do the issue justice, was just how much detail was included regarding the political shannigans to finally get the Croton Aqueduct built. I would have like more detail of the earlier parts of NY and their water.

It is amazing to envision, NYC as an island of valleys, ponds, streams, large hills, etc. Further amazing to think of its now concrete harbors as tidal marsh lands, where yellow fever harbored in the never ended mosquito propagation. While people like myself, look back at those early days with envy, reading about their "sewage" and how it tainted their so called water supply makes me happy that I am reading about it rather than living it.

My impetus to read this book stemmed from my interest of the "Collect Pond" and how it shaped NYC industry and how amazing to think there was actually a lake in Manhattan that was 70 feet deep!

I highly recommend this incredibly well written book, that I just couldn't put down. I would find a map of NYC and follow the streets as you follow the history. It makes it much more interesting.

The book illustrates the folly of trusting our elected officials. How often did they use a public fear to enrich their own pockets? The sordid ancestory of the Chase Manahattan Bank is a case in point that Gerard Koepell, a person who I shared classrooms with when we were growing up, brings out particularly well. The point of history is for us to learn from our collective experiences and Gerard lays it all out for us. Gerard points out that at first no one knew about cholera and it's relationship to contaminated water. I had no idea that well into the 1800s people from New York had no running water or toilets and used the streets as their "trash" depositories. What else did the book teach me? Politicians in the past had no stomach for a long-term project or long-term thinking ... Politicians were/are corrupt and weak-minded and despite the huge legislative bodies, politicians are overwhelmed and the real laws and decisions are made by 1 or 2 people and everyone else is, at best, a yes-person. The status quo is often very comfortable. In old New York, beer was a relatively safe drink because of the brewing process (ie boiling) and New York had great economic incentive to keep people drinking beer instead of water. What are the present day unrecognized-evils? Air quality? I worry that the tremendous rise in urban asthma will eventually transform into an increased risk of lung cancer, even in the non-smokers. What interests are happy with the status quo of our air? Automobile manufacturers? Oil companies? The Advertising Industry? The Media? The Pharmaceutical Industry? Anyway the book is great food for thought. Gramatically some of the sentences, particularly in the early chapters are attention grabbing gems. And that is from someone who was hit with a tennis raquet by the author. Good work Gerard! END