Washington Aqueduct

Infobox nrhp
name = Washington Aqueduct
nrhp_type = nhl

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caption = The Union Arch Bridge carries the Washington Aqueduct across Cabin John Creek.
location = 5900 MacArthur Blvd., NW
Washington, D.C.
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built = 1853-1864
architect = Montgomery C. Meigs
architecture =
designated=November 7, 1973
added = September 8, 1973
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refnum = 73002123
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governing_body = US Army Corps of EngineersThe Washington Aqueduct is an aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C. and parts of its suburbs. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Aqueduct was commissioned by Congress in 1852, and construction began in 1853 under the supervision of Montgomery C. Meigs and the US Army Corps of Engineers (which still owns and operates the system). Portions of the Aqueduct went online on January 3, 1859, and the full pipeline began operating in 1864. [Harry C. Ways, "The Washington Aqueduct: 1852-1992." (Baltimore, MD: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, 1996)] The system has been in continuous use ever since. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark, and the Union Arch Bridge within the system is listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Design and facilities

The centerpiece of the Aqueduct is a 12-mile (19 km) pipeline which connects the system's dam at Great Falls with the Dalecarlia Reservoir on the border with Montgomery County, Maryland. The pipeline runs along what is now MacArthur Boulevard, traversing some of the higher cliffs along the Potomac River.

The Union Arch Bridge carries the pipeline and MacArthur Boulevard over Cabin John Creek and the Cabin John Parkway near the community of Cabin John, Maryland. This bridge was the longest masonry arch bridge in the world for 40 years after its completion. [cite web
url=http://www.sycamoreisland.org/articles/sa200403.htm
title=A Sycamore Neighbor: The Washington Aqueduct
author=Norman Metzger
month=March | year=2004
publisher=Sycamore Islander] [cite web
url=http://www.nps.gov/choh/historyculture/thewashingtonaqueductsystem.htm
title=The Washington Aqueduct System
author=National Park Service
date=July 19, 2006]

Water from Dalecarlia also flows on to the Georgetown Reservoir in Georgetown. From there, some of the waters flow to the McMillan Reservoir through the Washington City Tunnel.

ystem expansion

The system originally used a single pipe for water delivery, and did not have any water treatment plants, relying instead on the reservoirs to act as settling basins. By the turn of the 20th century, however, Washington's growth and the high amount of sediment in the Potomac's water kept the reservoirs from doing their jobs well, and so the first treatment plant, a massive slow sand filter bed system, was installed at McMillan Reservoir, and was completed in 1905. [Scott, Pamela (2007), [http://www.usace.army.mil/publications/eng-pamphlets/ep870-1-67/ "Capital Engineers: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Development of Washington, D.C., 1790-2004."] Chapter 4. (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.) Publication No. EP 870-1-67.] The regular use of chlorine as a disinfectant began in 1923 at the McMillan plant. The McMillan plant was not replaced until 1985, when a rapid sand filter plant was opened adjacent to it. [Ways, "op. cit."] Efforts are under way to redevelop the land the slow sand plant used, while maintaining some of the plant's sand silos for historical purposes.

In the 1920s, the Aqueduct was upgraded with the addition of a second pipe from Great Falls to Dalecarlia, and a rapid sand filter plant was built at Dalecarlia Reservoir, which went online in 1927. The Dalecarlia plant is the biggest of the two plants in the system, having been upgraded in the 1950s, and is the plant that serves the Virginia communities that use the Aqueduct. An additional intake was built at Little Falls in the 1950s.

Operations and service area

The Aqueduct is a wholesale water supplier. The communities it serves are responsible for billing customers and managing water mains. The service area is:
* Washington, D.C. and most of the federal installations in the city (via DCWASA)
* Arlington County, Virginia
* The city of Falls Church, Virginia and part of Fairfax County (particularly McLean).

References

External links

* [http://washingtonaqueduct.nab.usace.army.mil/ Washington Aqueduct - Official site] US Army Corps of Engineers
* [http://www.nps.gov/choh/History/Structures/Aqueduct.html A longer history of the system, from the C&O Canal site] National Park Service
* [http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceID=1401&resourceType=Structure National Historic Landmarks Program: Washington Aqueduct] National Park Service
* [http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/Vignettes/Vignette_59.htm US Army Corps of Engineers – Historical Vignettes]