Bridge: (Satellite)
Browns Station Fountain: (Satellite)
This reservoir was built by flooding a bowl in the mountains rather than building a big dam. This is the levee that has the spillway.
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| Satellite |
This contour map shows the two basins that were filled with water.
I'm glad I found this map because, even though construction didn't start until 1907 [TripAdvisor], some 1901 and 1903 topo maps already show the reservoir.
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| DEC_map |
I did find this topo map that correctly shows the land before it was flooded. Note that the Ulster & Delaware Railroad used to go through the valley.
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| 1903/03 Rosendale Quad @ 62,500 |
"Ashokan Reservoir, located 14 miles west of the City of Kingston in Ulster County, was created in 1915 by the construction of 5 ½ miles of dams and dikes within the Esopus Creek drainage. This 8,315 acre reservoir is a major component of the Catskill System of the New York City Water supply. The reservoir is broken into two basins by a dividing weir near its center. The Dividing Weir, pinches and separates the upper west basin from the lower east basin." [DEC_reservoir]
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| Hudson River Maritime Museum Collection via hrmm "The Ashokan Reservoir was built between 1907 and 1915 to supply water to New York City. The flooding of twelve communities and thousands of acres of farmland sparked long-lasting controversy. The last of the land claims were settled in 1940. Two thousand residents were moved, some of the communities were relocated, others were flooded." |
Arch Bridge
I was confused by phrase "a dividing weir near its center" in the above quote because I found a bridge instead of a weir. I guess there are concrete barriers under each arch.
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| Street View, Sep 2026 |
Yep, this view better shows those concrete barriers.
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| Street View, Aug 2012 |
And this view shows another levee to form the reservoir.
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| Street View, Aug 2012 |
"The Esopus Creek enters the Ashokan’s West Basin and after a period of settling flows over a weir or is released into the East Basin. From the East Basin, water is released into the Catskill Aqueduct for drinking water use, or discharged via a release channel into the lower Esopus Creek." [AshokanStreams]
Sometimes, the eastern basin is significantly lower than the western basin. And we can clearly see that the bridge is over a dam.
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| HudsonValleyOne |
Brown's Station Fountain
Out of frame to the left in the above street view is the Brown's Station Fountain. The only street view available here shows a dry fountain. The levee in the above view is in the background of this view.
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| Street View, Sep 2026 |
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| Maggie D, Oct 2020 |
The current fountain replaced the original fountain that was built to aerate the water to remove odors caused by the plant life and soils in the flooded basins. The fountain replacement happened when hydropower was added to the project, and the fountain runs only when the turbines are turning.
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| Underestimated Arsenal posted [This post has a long description] |
This is what the original aeration fountain looked like.
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| MyHeritage_photo via MyHeritage_collection via MyHeritage_ashokan |
Catskill Aqueduct
This reservoir is part of the Catskill Water Supply System.
This system supplies 40% of New York City's daily drinking water needs in non-drought periods. [NYC_reservoir]
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| NYC_watershed via NYC_water_supply |
Croton and Delaware are the other two water supply systems. This map shows the Catskill Aqueduct.
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| NYC_water_supply_system |
