Historical and commercial sketches of Washington and environs: our capital city, "the Paris of America"; its prominent places and people .. Its improvements, progress and enterprise .. . ent of the energy anddaring of our engineers. But when the levels were applied to the ground it wasfound that the rocky precipices and difficult passages were nearly all below theline, which, allowing a uniform grade, would naturally be selected for the conduit, There are, in all, upon this work eleven tunnels, some of them many hundredfeet in length, and six bridges. The most remarkable of these is the bridge
Historical and commercial sketches of Washington and environs: our capital city, "the Paris of America"; its prominent places and people .. Its improvements, progress and enterprise .. . ent of the energy anddaring of our engineers. But when the levels were applied to the ground it wasfound that the rocky precipices and difficult passages were nearly all below theline, which, allowing a uniform grade, would naturally be selected for the conduit, There are, in all, upon this work eleven tunnels, some of them many hundredfeet in length, and six bridges. The most remarkable of these is the bridge thatspans a small tributary of the Potomac, called the Cabin John Creek, by a singlearch, two hundred and twenty feet in span, and one hundred feet high. Thereceiving reservoir is formed by throwing a dam across a small stream known asthe Little Falls branch. The dam is of pounded earth, and floods above fiftyacres, making a reservoir of irregular shape, containing, at a level of one hun-dred and forty feet above high tide, 82,521,500 gallons. The water leaves it at adistance of three thousand feet from the point where it enters, and, in slowly passing 60 WASHINGTON CITY. across. this pool, which deepens to thirty or forty feet near the exit, deposits most of its sediment. The Little Falls branch sup-plies two or three millions of gallons of purewater daily to the reservoir. The GreatFalls of the Potomac, from whence thesupply of water is obtained are nineteen milesdistant. This romantic water-fall is a sublime speci-men of the wildest mood of nature. Throughjagged barriers of rock, the river forces itsway with great vehemence. The entire sceneis wild in the extreme, and exhibits thecaprices of nature on a grand and beautitulscale. They can be reached by canal or road, andwill w7ell repay the time required to visit THE GREAT FALLS OF THE POTOMAC, them. Mount Vernon, Washingtons old homestead, is about 15 miles below the city, and is in the possession of a Board of Regents, com
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidhistoricalco, bookyear1884
