Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii ONE "Give Us Cold Water" 1 TWO Manahata Goes Dutch 7 THREE English Well-Being 17 FOUR Tea Water and the Works That Weren't 28 FIVE New City, Old Trouble 50 Six Aaron's Water 70 SEVEN Fools of Gotham 102 EIGHT Catching the Croton Bug 139 NINE The Work Begins 185 TEN Taking the High Road? 218 ELEVEN Filling the "Big Teapot" 246 EPILOGUE New York's Waterfrom Then to Now 285 Notes 293 Index 341
Koeppel's lively and absorbing account of supplying water to New York amounts to a history of life itself in the city during its first two centuries. Disease, social habits, business and industry--virtually all aspects of public and private life in the city--have at times been shaped by the simple and basic need for supplies of clean water. This is a scholarly study written to capture anyone's imagination. -- Ethan Carr, author of "Wilderness by Design" Engrossing and entertaining, Water for Gotham is a beautifully written romp through some juicy Big Apple history. -- Alice Outwater, author of "Water: A Natural History" Delightfully told and informative, Gerard Koeppel's Water for Gotham: A History is as fresh and sparkling as the waters of the Croton Aqueduct. -- Tony Hiss, author of "The Experience of Place" A meticulously researched and thoroughly documented history, Gerard Koeppel's Water for Gotham is also a well-paced story--or more precisely a collection of stories--about how 'Old New York' took its initial steps toward becoming the world's quintessential metropolis. This book will be valued--and enjoyed--not only by historians and urban planners, but also by anyone interested in the city's growth and development. -- Thomas Mellins, coauthor of "New York 1880, New York 1930," and "New York 1960" Water for Gotham delivers an important historical story about the little-noticed underpinnings of American city life, a tale rich with health and environmental issues that resonate to the present day. It also tellingly analyzes what passed for 'water policy' in old New York and water's centrality to everyday routines and in crises (fires, epidemics), while documenting the miseries New Yorkers suffered due to long term failures of vision and finance. -- Philip Scranton, Rutgers University, author of "Endless Novelty"
Gerard T. Koeppel, a resident of Manhattan, is a writer and journalist. He was an editor at CBS News for eleven years, and previously a reporter, producer, and writer at NBC, Mutual, and other radio networks and stations.
"A fascinating, play-by-play tale based on an exhaustive review of personal narrative, anecdotes, primary sources, and nearly forgotten archives...Koeppel reveals his eye for interesting detail."--Library Journal "Koeppel ... has written a vivid history of how Manhattan finally got reliable drinking water... Koeppel's graceful history is written with wit and intelligence..."--Publishers Weekly "New York journalist Koeppel tells the lively, labyrinthine tale of how the burgeoning metropolis struggled for decades to obtain an adequate supply of water."--Booklist "A tale of ingenuity in the face of enormous natural and social challenges, ably narrated by the journalist Gerard T. Koeppel... Let us toast the engineers, the laborers and the politicians--the heroes of Koeppel's account--with a glass of clean, clear Manhattan tap water."--Laurence A. Marschall, The Sciences "Mr. Koeppel has made ... an engaging tale of material that could easily have become leaden. His prose is unfalteringly elegant, his eye for enlivening detail is keen, and his thorough research has been splendidly assembled. This is most certainly not just a book for New Yorkers."--Philip Ball, The New York Observer "Extraordinarily well-researched and remarkably readable... Entertaining and highly useful."--Caleb Carr, The New York Times Book Review "New York ... has a good tale to tell of city hall intrigue and corruption and fortunes made on the back of cruel epidemics and of a heartening triumph for engineering...The story is well told by a good journalist."--Fred Pearce, The Times Higher Education Supplement "An engaging tale... [Koeppel's] prose is unfalteringly elegant, his eye for enlivening detail is keen, and his thorough research is splendidly assembled. This is most certainly not just a book for New Yorkers."--Philip Ball, New York Observer "Vivid... Koeppel's graceful history is written with wit and intelligence."--Publishers Weekly "Koeppel's study, an engaging read, follows the tortuous origins of the city's much-delayed water system. In doing so, Water for Gotham uncovers a rich history--a history that seemed to have been forgotten nearly as soon as the fresh water began to flow."--New York History
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