When was the first aqueduct built?
Technology
The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts, which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 kilometers, but less than seventy kilometers of this was above ground and supported by arches.
Wignacourt Aqueduct
The first attempts to build the aqueduct were made by Grand Master Martin Garzez in 1596, but construction was suspended before being continued in 1610. The watercourse was inaugurated five years later on 21 April 1615. Several engineers took part in the project, including Bontadino de Bontadini, Giovanni Attard and Natale Tomasucci. The aqueduct was named after Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, who partially financed its construction.
Giovanni Attard
Attard was one of the "capimastri" (master builders) involved in the construction of the Wignacourt Aqueduct. In 1612, Bolognese engineer Bontadino de Bontadini was appointed to take over the project after the Sicilian engineer Natale Tomasucci left Malta after being unable to solve the problem of how water would flow at points where the ground level dropped. Meanwhile, Attard proposed to construct stone arches along the depressions, and running the aqueduct through pipes in the arches. Bontadini adopted this idea, and the aqueduct was built within three years, being inaugurated on 21 April 1615.
Lake Cochituate
Lake Cochituate was created by the construction of Lake Cochituate Dam to provide a reservoir for water supply to the city of Boston, via the Cochituate Aqueduct. Lake Cochituate was the first major water supply system built for the city, and replaced the previous usage of Jamaica Pond. Developed from 1848 to 1863, it supplied Boston's water until 1951, by which time it had been supplanted by the larger Wachusett and Quabbin Reservoir supplies. The surveys and plans for the project were performed by civil engineer James Fowle Baldwin (1782–1862), the son of Loammi Baldwin who designed the Middlesex Canal, and younger brother of Loammi Baldwin, Jr. (1780–1838) who authored the earlier studies for a Boston water supply. Its 1890 dam, replacing two older dams on the lake's northwestern outlet, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The former gatehouse for the Cochituate Aqueduct is located on the east side of the lake.
Acueducto de Ponce
The Acueducto de Ponce (Ponce Aqueduct), formally Acueducto Alfonso XII, is the name of a historic gravity-based water supply system in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was designed in 1875 by Timoteo Luberza and built the following years. This aqueduct was the first modern water distribution system built in Puerto Rico.
Aqueduct (water supply)
The Indian subcontinent is believed to have some of the earliest aqueducts. Evidence can be found at the sites of present-day Hampi, Karnataka. The massive aqueducts near river Tungabhadra supplying irrigation water were once long. The waterways supplied water to royal bath tubs.
Aqueduct (water supply)
Near the Peruvian town of Nazca, an ancient pre-Columbian system of aqueducts called Puquios were built and are still in use today. They were made of intricately placed stones, a construction material widely used by the Nazca culture. The time period in which they were constructed is still debated, but some evidence supports circa A.D. 540–552, in response to drought periods in the region.
Welland
The First Welland Canal was extended in 1833 to reach Lake Erie and has influenced development of this city ever since. A wooden aqueduct was built to carry the Welland Canal over the Welland River at what is now downtown Welland, and the area became known as simply Aqueduct. A lock to cross from the canal to the river and vice versa was also built. A small shantytown soon developed around the facility, providing essential services in what was a convenient stop-over location for travelers and workers on the canal.
Incan aqueducts
The first recorded accounts of Incan water transportation structures came from Spanish conquistadores in the 16th Century. One such explorer was Pedro Cieza de León. In his published chronicles detailing his travels through Peru, he noted seeing a large wall as he headed east from Cuzco, which scholars argue he was referring to the aqueduct at the Piquillacta archeological site. Cieza writes:
Chirk Aqueduct
The aqueduct was designed by civil engineer Thomas Telford for the Ellesmere Canal. The resident engineer was M Davidson who also acted as resident engineer on a number of Telford's other works. The foundation stone was laid on 17 June 1796 and it was completed in 1801. It has a cast iron trough within which the water is contained. The masonry walls hide the cast iron interior. The aqueduct followed Telford's innovative Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal, and was a forerunner of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, also on the Llangollen Canal. The aqueduct was briefly the tallest navigable one ever built, and it now is Grade II* listed in both England and Wales. It forms part of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct World Heritage Site.
Aqua Alexandrina
The aqueduct was constructed in AD 226 as the last of the eleven ancient aqueducts of Rome. It was built under the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus to supply his enlargement of the Thermae of Nero which were renamed "Thermae Alexandrinae". The aqueduct was repaired for the first time in the era of Diocletian between the 3rd and 4th century, later between the 5th and 6th century and finally in the 8th century during the reign of Pope Adrian I. The aqueduct was described in the 17th century by Raffaello Fabretti (1680).
Fountains in France
The first known fountains in France were built by Roman engineers in the first and second centuries A.D. in Glanum, Vaison-la-Romaine, Nîmes, and other towns of Provence. Like the fountains in Rome, they were fed with water from distant lakes and rivers aqueducts, sometimes more than fifty kilometres from the fountains. Remains of the aqueducts can be found outside Avignon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Glanum, and other Roman towns.
History of California 1900–present
Construction on the Mokelumne Aqueduct and Pardee Dam began in 1926, and by 1929 the concrete arch Pardee Dam and the First Mokelumne Aqueduct, consisting of a single pipeline, were completed. The first deliveries to the Bay Area from the reservoir were made on June 23, 1929. At the time of completion, Pardee Dam was the tallest in the world (this record was surpassed one year later by Diablo Dam in Washington). In 1949, a second pipeline was built, and in 1963 the third pipeline was constructed, bringing the aqueduct to its present capacity. In 1964, the second major dam and reservoir on the Mokelumne River, the Camanche Dam and Camanche Reservoir, were completed below Pardee. The Mokelumne Aqueduct and dam(s), run by the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), is the primary water source for 35 communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, including Berkeley and Oakland. EBMUD holds water rights to almost all of the in the Mokulumne River watershed and in other watersheds. EBMUD also has an American River water right that could be sent to the Mokelumne Aqueduct through the Folsom South Canal.
Van Cortlandt Park
In the 1830s, officials in a rapidly expanding New York City saw a need for a larger water supply. Major David Bates Douglass was appointed to perform engineering studies on the future Old Croton Aqueduct in March 1833. Douglass made estimates for the new aqueduct in 1833–1834 and John Martineau performed a separate study in 1834. Both found the proposed route, which ran through the present-day park, to be okay. Thus, in 1837, construction started on the Aqueduct, which ran from the Croton River upstate to the New York Public Library Main Branch and Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan. The project was built by 3–4 thousand laborers who completed the entire aqueduct in five years. The aqueduct's builders constructed a gatehouse. within the present-day park to provide access to the aqueduct's interior. The old aqueduct was supplemented by the New Croton Aqueduct in 1890, which also ran through the park. The Old Croton Aqueduct was in use until 1955, though the part that ran through the park was closed down in 1897 after the new aqueduct was connected to the Jerome Park Reservoir.
Pont du Gard
The aqueduct bridge is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a system built in the first century AD to carry water from a spring at Uzès to the Roman colony of "Nemausus" (Nîmes). Because of the uneven terrain between the two points, the mostly underground aqueduct followed a long, winding route that called for a bridge across the gorge of the Gardon River. The bridge has three tiers of arches, stands high, and descends a mere  – a gradient of only 1 in 18,241 – while the whole aqueduct descends in height by only over its entire length, which is indicative of the great precision that Roman engineers were able to achieve using simple technology. The aqueduct formerly carried an estimated of water a day to the fountains, baths and homes of the citizens of Nîmes. It may have been in use as late as the 6th century, with some parts used for significantly longer, but a lack of maintenance after the 4th century led to clogging by mineral deposits and debris that eventually choked off the flow of water.
Neher water system
The reason for the construction of the aqueduct was the discovery of a subterranean water supply in the mountainous valleys north of Aurangabad. The consequent construction of the waterway provided a stable water supply for a population of around seven lakhs (around seven hundred thousand people), with the city of Aurangabad receiving enough fresh water to prevent the shortages that had previously occurred. The aqueduct was named Khair-E-Jari. The construction of such aqueducts continued from 1612 until 1803 with two more aqueducts constructed by engineers such as Malik Ambar, Shah Mehmood of Panchakki and Shah Ali Nahri.
Malik Ambar's design was not well received and it was described by Vazir Mullah Mohammad as imaginary and preposterous. However, Malik Ambar managed to construct it within fifteen months, at half the estimated cost.
Architecture of Manchester
The Industrial Revolution gathered momentum after the Bridgewater Canal was opened to Castlefield on 10 July 1761. The canal brought coal to the town from Worsley and when in 1776 it had been extended, cotton could be shipped into the town from the Port of Liverpool. At Castlefield Basin are a series of early warehouses, such as the Dukes Warehouse and the Grocers Warehouse. By 1800 the Bridgewater at Castlefield was connected to the Rochdale Canal and beyond that to the Ashton Canal. On the Ashton Canal the Store Street Aqueduct designed by Benjamin Outram, is believed to be the first skewed aqueduct of its kind and the oldest still in use and a brick lock-keeper's cottage constructed about 1800 survives by Number 2 Lock.
Store Street Aqueduct
The Store Street Aqueduct in central Manchester, England, was built in 1798 by Benjamin Outram on the Ashton Canal. A Grade II* listed building it is built on a skew of 45° across Store Street, and is believed to be the first major aqueduct of its kind in Great Britain and the oldest still in use today.
Navigable aqueduct
Navigable aqueducts (sometimes called water bridges) are bridge structures that carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railways or roads. They are primarily distinguished by their size, carrying a larger cross-section of water than most water-supply aqueducts. Although Roman aqueducts were sometimes used for transport, aqueducts were not generally used until the 17th century when the problems of summit level canals had been solved and modern canal systems were developed. The 662-metre long steel Briare aqueduct carrying the Canal latéral à la Loire over the River Loire was built in 1896. It was ranked as the longest navigable aqueduct in the world for more than a century, until the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany took the title in the early 21st century.
Frederick Eaton
In 1906, the Board of Water Commissioners created the Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct. They appointed William Mulholland as chief engineer, who planned and developed the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The aqueduct was completed in 1913. The Aqueduct brought plentiful water to Los Angeles, which supplied its explosive population growth. It also diverted the Owens River and its tributaries, taking water away from the Owens Valley, eventually disabling the farms and communities there.
Aqueduct (bridge)
Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were likely first used by the Minoans around 2000 BCE. The Minoans had developed what was then an extremely advanced irrigation system, including several aqueducts.
Roman aqueduct
During the fall of the Roman Empire, some aqueducts were deliberately cut by enemies but more fell into disuse because of deteriorating Roman infrastructure and lack of maintenance, such as the Eifel aqueduct ("pictured right"). Observations made by the Spaniard Pedro Tafur, who visited Rome in 1436, reveal misunderstandings of the very nature of the Roman aqueducts:
During the Renaissance, the standing remains of the city's massive masonry aqueducts inspired architects, engineers and their patrons; Pope Nicholas V renovated the main channels of the Roman "Aqua Virgo" in 1453. Many aqueducts in Rome's former empire were kept in good repair. The 15th-century rebuilding of aqueduct at Segovia in Spain shows advances on the Pont du Gard by using fewer arches of greater height, and so greater economy in its use of the raw materials. The skill in building aqueducts was not lost, especially of the smaller, more modest channels used to supply water wheels. Most such mills in Britain were developed in the medieval period for bread production, and used similar methods as that developed by the Romans with leats tapping local rivers and streams.
Aqueduct of Algeciras
The Aqueduct of Algeciras () is one of the most important buildings in Algeciras, Spain. Numerous textbooks, dictionaries and guidebooks cite this building as Arabic or Roman but it was built in the eighteenth century.
History of Athens
He built the first aqueduct as an underground tunnel. Its sources were most likely on the slopes of Mount Hymettos and along the Ilissos river. It supplied, among other structures, the fountain house in the southeast corner of the Agora, but it had a number of branches. In the 4th century BC it was replaced by a system of terracotta pipes in a stone-built underground channel, sometimes called the Hymettos aqueduct; many sections had round, oval or square access holes on top of about .
Pipe segments of this system are displayed at the Evangelismos and Syntagma Metro stations.
Stanley Ferry Aqueduct
Stanley Ferry Aqueduct was built between 1836 and 1839 to take the Aire and Calder Navigation over the River Calder in West Yorkshire, England. It is one of the earliest through arch bridges in the world and is considered to be the longest span aqueduct executed in cast iron.
Kavala aqueduct
While the aqueduct is "probably of Roman origin", the present structure dates to the 16th century. A Byzantine barrier wall of the early 14th century, built as part of the fortifications on the Kavala acropolis, probably also functioned as an aqueduct. If so, it would have been a rare example of a Byzantine aqueduct, since Byzantine cities more typically used wells and cisterns rather than either maintaining existing Roman aqueducts or building new ones. The barrier wall was replaced with the present arched aqueduct during Suleiman the Magnificent's repair and improvement of the Byzantine fortifications. Some authors date that construction to the time of the 1522 Siege of Rhodes, but a more likely date is between 1530 and 1536. As late as 1911, it was still being used to supply the city with drinking water from Mount Pangaeus.
Valens Aqueduct
The exact date that construction on the aqueduct began is uncertain, but it was completed in 368 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Valens, whose name it bears. The spectacular bridge section lay along the valley between the third and fourth hills of Constantinople, occupied respectively at that time by the Capitolium and the Church of the Holy Apostles. According to tradition, the aqueduct bridge was built using the stones of the walls of Chalcedon, pulled down as punishment in 366 after the revolt of Procopius. The structure was inaugurated in 373 by the urban prefect Clearchus, who commissioned a "Nymphaeum Maius" in the Forum of Theodosius, that was supplied with water from the aqueduct.
Delaware Aqueduct
The Delaware Aqueduct is the newest of the New York City aqueducts. It takes water from the Rondout Reservoir through the Chelsea Pump Station, the West Branch Reservoir, and the Kensico Reservoir, ending at the Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers, New York. The aqueduct was constructed between 1939 and 1945, and carries approximately half of the New York City water supply of per day. At long and wide, the Delaware Aqueduct is one of the world's longest tunnels.
Wignacourt Aqueduct
The first fountain which was connected to the aqueduct was the original Wignacourt Fountain (demolished), located in St. George's Square in Valletta, facing the Grandmaster's Palace. This fountain was symbolic of Wignacourt as, similar to the other monuments of the aqueduct, it had a Fleur-des-Lis on top. There is an early 18th century painting of the square with this fountain included. The inauguration ceremony of the aqueduct on 21 April 1615 was held at this fountain. The original fountain was Baroque but less decorated and was ordered to be demolished on 2 January 1745.
Sudbury Aqueduct
The Sudbury Aqueduct was constructed between 1875 and 1878, and was in use for almost 100 years. It was designed to carry water from the watershed of the Sudbury River to Boston and its surrounding communities. Reservoirs in Framingham and Southborough were constructed to impound this water at the time of the aqueduct's development, and additional reservoirs in Ashland and Hopkinton were constructed in the 1880s in an attempt to meet increased demand. Finally in the 1890s the Sudbury Reservoir was created in 1898, significantly increasing the amount of water available for distribution. For most of the Sudbury Aqueduct's history after the Sudbury Reservoir was built the water was primarily sourced from the Foss Reservoir which the Sudbury Reservoir feeds with Reservoirs #1 and #2 serving as reserve supply due to the Sudbury Reservoir's superior water quality over the Reservoir #2 system.
Aqueduct (water supply)
An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In modern engineering, the term aqueduct is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. The term aqueduct also often refers specifically to a bridge on an artificial watercourse. The word is derived from the Latin ' ("water") and ' ("to lead"). Aqueducts were used in ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and ancient Rome. In modern times, the largest aqueducts of all have been built in the United States to supply the country's biggest cities. The simplest aqueducts are small ditches cut into the earth. Much larger channels may be used in modern aqueducts. Aqueducts sometimes run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. Modern aqueducts may also use pipelines. Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops and supply large cities with drinking water.
Weston Aqueduct
The Weston Aqueduct was built early in the 20th century during the third phase of the evolution of the Greater Boston water supply system, now administered by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). During this phase, the other major elements of the water supply included the Sudbury Dam and Reservoir, and the Wachusett Aqueduct and Reservoir. The purpose of the aquedect and Weston Reservoir were to channel water to the suburbs north of Boston via Spot Pond in Stoneham. The aqueduct was built between 1901 and 1903, under the supervision of the Frederic T. Stearns, the chief engineer of the MWRA predecessor, the Metropolitan Water Board. The buildings that shelter the aqueduct's above-ground elements were designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. The landscaping of the aqueduct's open channel was (along with other elements of the Weston Reservoir) designed by the Olmsted Brothers.
William Mulholland
In 1906, the Los Angeles Board of Water Commissioners appointed Mulholland the Chief Engineer of the Bureau of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. From 1907 through 1913, Mulholland directed the building of the aqueduct. The Los Angeles Aqueduct, inaugurated in November 1913. The project required 3900 workers at its peak, and involved the digging of 164 tunnels. Construction began in 1908. The complexity of the project has been compared to the building of the Panama Canal. Water from the Owens River reached a reservoir in the San Fernando Valley on November 5, 1913. At a ceremony that day, Mulholland spoke his famous words about this engineering feat: "There it is. Take it."
Porta Maggiore
The Porta Maggiore is by far the best urban site to visit for an understanding and view of the ancient aqueducts. It is a monumental double archway built of white travertine. It was first known as the Porta Prenestina, perhaps a reference to the road over which is passes (the Via Praenestina). The "gate," built in 52 AD by the emperor Claudius, was originally intended to provide a decorative section of support for two aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. At that time these aqueducts crossed the ancient Via Labicana and Praenestina roads thereby providing the opportunity to create at this location a sort of triumphal arch to the conquest of nature and its conqueror, the emperor Claudius. The two channels of these aqueducts, (the Aqua Claudia and Aqua Anio Novus), one lying on top of the other, can be seen when viewing the cross-section running through the travertine attic at the top of the gate.
Neher water system
Nahr water system provided clean water for the people of Aurangabad and its suburbs. It was created by Malik Ambar who founded the town under the name Khadki and was later expanded by Aurangzeb in order to facilitate the military activity that became prevalent under Mughal rule during the 17th century.
The first aqueduct in Aurangabad was designed in 1612 by Malik Ambar in order to address the shortage of water caused by the lack of reservoirs and natural water reserves in the area. Despite the surrounding landscape, which made it difficult to construct the aqueducts' supporting pillars, the construction went ahead.
Aqueduct (bridge)
Bridges were a distinctive feature of Roman aqueducts which were built in all parts of the Roman Empire, from Germany to Africa, and especially in the city of Rome, where they supplied water to public baths and for drinking. Roman aqueducts set a standard of engineering that was not surpassed for more than a thousand years.
Pont d'Aël
The Pont d'Aël is a Roman aqueduct, located in a village of the same name in the comune of Aymavilles in Aosta Valley, northern Italy. It was built in the year 3BC for irrigation purposes and supplying water for the newly founded colony of Augusta Praetoria, which is now known as Aosta. The water was directed through a neighbouring valley 66 m above the floor of the Aosta valley, through a sophisticated system. The aqueduct is 6km long in total. In addition to its unusual position, the construction, which was originally thought to be a three-story structure, shows more unique features such as a control corridor below the water line, as well as explicit private funding. Today, the water channel of the aqueduct serves as a public walking trail.
La Ceja, Antioquia
La Ceja was elevated to the status of municipality in 1855. In 1905, the first studies for the installation of an aqueduct were made and in 1927 came into operation the first aqueduct and sewerage systems.
Aqueducts on the C&amp;O Canal
The Town Creek Aqueduct (#10), like the other aqueducts on the last , was begun in 1838, and had the contract abandoned and later another contractor began work (in 1847). It was completed in the Summer of 1850. The Western Maryland Railway constructed a bridge next to this aqueduct.
Aqueduct (water supply)
On the island of Samos, the Tunnel of Eupalinos was built during the reign of Polycrates (538-522 BC). It is considered an underground aqueduct and brought fresh water to Pythagoreion for roughly a thousand years.
Aqua Appia
As Frontinus explains: "for four hundred and forty-one years from the foundation of the City, the Romans were satisfied with the use of such waters as they drew from the Tiber, from wells, or from springs...But there now run into the City: the Appian aqueduct, Old Anio, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina, which is also called Augusta, Claudia, New Anio". Rome's first aqueduct was in response to the growing city and population which may have suffered a prolonged drought and major sanitary issues which affected their existing water supplies.
Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
Travelling south from Kingswood Junction, the first aqueduct is the modest Yarningale Aqueduct which carries the canal over a small stream near Preston Bagot, Warwickshire. This cast iron aqueduct was built in 1834 to replace the original wooden structure which was washed away when the stream flooded that year.
San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct
Accounts vary greatly as to when the aqueduct was built. One account indicates it was built between 1780 and 1790 by the Chumash Indians under the direction of a Spanish priest trained in hydrology. Others place its construction in the 1790s, and yet another indicates it was built between 1805 and 1815 by stonemasons brought from Mexico.
Sanitation in ancient Rome
The management and maintenance involved in keeping the aqueducts flowing is well described by Frontinus, a general appointed by the emperor Nerva as water commissioner toward the end of the first century AD. He described his work on the distribution system in De aquaeductu published at the end of the first century AD. When first appointed, he surveyed and mapped the entire system, and strove to investigate the many abuses of the water supply, such as the act of tapping into pipes illegally. He also systematized aqueduct maintenance with gangs of specially trained workmen. He also tried to separate the supply, so that the best-quality water went to drinking and cooking, while second-quality water flowed to the fountains, baths, and, finally, sewers.
The system in Rome was copied in all provincial towns and cities of the Roman Empire, and even down to villas that could afford the plumbing. Roman citizens came to expect high standards of hygiene, and the army was also well provided with latrines and bath houses, or thermae. Aqueducts were used everywhere in the empire not just to supply drinking water for private houses but to supply other needs such as irrigation, public fountains, and thermae. Indeed, many of the provincial aqueducts survive in working order to the present day, although modernized and updated. Of the eleven ancient aqueducts serving Rome, eight of them entered Rome close to each other on the Esquiline Hill. Also, the first aqueduct was the Aqua Appia built in 312 BC by the censor Appius. Other aqueducts of importance to Roman sanitation was the Aqua Marcia built between 144-140 BC, which provided large amounts of quality water to Rome. One Aqueduct with some major importance to Rome was Traiana, which tapped from the clear springs of the northern and western slopes above lake Bracciano. It is said that the “Romans fully appreciated the importance of plentiful and wholesome supply of water, for domestic purposes to health of the Community. It was stated by Amulree that for 441 years after the building of Rome, it depended on water from the Tiber for drinking and other domestic purposes, but in 312 BC Appius Claudius Crassus provide Rome with water from the Springs of the Alban hills and brought to consumers by the means of Aqueducts. The Amulree notes state that this practice is in line with the teachings of Hippocrates: that stagnant water should be refused, not the spring water from the hills or rain water.
Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period
The aqueduct, a method of conveying water to the city, was an integral part of Roman city planning. Already quite large, Jerusalem needed to satisfy the needs of countless pilgrims annually, requiring much more water than was available. Water was taken from Ein Eitam and Solomon's Pools, about 20 kilometers south of Jerusalem crow flies and about 30 meters higher in altitude than the Temple Mount. Like its Hasmonean predecessor, the Aqueduct took a sinuous route in order to bypass ridges lying in its path, although at two locations it was carved as a tunnel: a 400 meters long section under Bethlehem and a 370 meters section under Jabel Mukaber. At Rachel's Tomb the aqueduct split into two, a lower aqueduct running to the Temple Mount and an upper aqueduct leading to the pool near the Herodian Citadel. Until recently the upper aqueduct was thought to have been constructed 200 years after Herod's reign, the work of Legio X Fretensis which resided in Jerusalem. Recent studies, however, indicate that the Legion only renovated the aqueduct which had been partially destroyed.
Ancient Rome
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to aid in their agriculture. By the third century, the city of Rome was supplied by 11 aqueducts with a combined length of . Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Sometimes, where valleys deeper than had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to convey water across a valley.
Drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States
In the arid American Southwest, the water demand of rapidly growing cities such as Los Angeles exceeded local water availability, requiring the construction of large pipelines to bring in water from far-away sources. The most spectacular example is the first Los Angeles Aqueduct built between 1905 and 1913 to supply water from the Owens Valley over a distance of 375 km.
Duck Creek Aqueduct
Duck Creek Aqueduct, also known as the Metamora Aqueduct and Whitewater Canal Aqueduct, is a historic aqueduct carrying the Whitewater Canal over Duck Creek in Metamora Township, Franklin County, Indiana. It is the only surviving covered wood aqueduct in the United States as such it is a form of covered bridge. It is a single-span Burr through truss aqueduct and measures approximately long, wide, and deep. The original aqueduct was built between 1839 and 1843. The present structure was built in 1846, after the original aqueduct was washed out in a flood. It was strengthened in 1868, and repaired in 1901. After abandonment and deterioration, the Duck Creek Aqueduct was restored to its present appearance in 1946-1949.
Aqueduct (bridge)
In the seventh century BCE, the Assyrians built an 80 km long limestone aqueduct, which included a 10 m high section to cross a 300 m wide valley, to carry water to their capital city, Nineveh.
Cura Annonae
A steady supply of water was needed for watermills and this came from the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct bringing water some from springs near Lake Bracciano to Janiculum hill just outside the walls of the city of Rome. The aqueduct was inaugurated in 109 CE and the water it carried was used initially as drinking and bathing water. A famine (and resultant riots) in 190 CE caused by corruption in the grain distribution system influenced the Roman government under Emperor Septimus Severus to intervene and convert the distribution of grain to the populace into the distribution of flour. The watermills constructed at Janiculum "were intended to centralize, regularize, and perhaps even deprivatize the city's milling operations." Estimates of the date when the watermills came into operation vary, but it was probably in the early 3rd century.
Los Angeles Aqueduct
Construction began in 1908 and was divided into 11 divisions and a cement plant. The number of men who were on the payroll the first year was 2,629 and this number peaked at 6,060 in May 1909. In 1910, employment dropped to 1,150 due to financial reasons but rebounded later in the year. Between 1911 and 1912 employment ranged from 2,800 to 3,800 workers. The number of laborers working on the aqueduct at its peak was 3,900. In 1913 the City of Los Angeles completed construction of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Eifel Aqueduct
The Eifel aqueduct was built in the northern part of the region. The construction is of concrete with stones forming an arched covering. It had a maximum capacity of approximately of drinking water daily. The aqueduct provided water for the fountains, baths, and private homes of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. The aqueduct remained in use until about 260, when the city was first plundered by the German tribes. After this date, it was never brought back into operation, and the city obtained its water from the old Vorgebirge Aqueduct.
Procida
In 1957, the first underwater aqueduct in Europe was built in Procida.
Odivelas
In the early 18th century, King John V, ordered the construction of an aqueduct to transport water from the parish of Caneças to the city of Lisbon, which suffered from chronic lack of water. The Águas Livres Aqueduct, which began to operate in 1748, is one of the masterpieces of ancient Portuguese engineering.
Cloaca Maxima
The eleven aqueducts which supplied water to Rome by the 1st century AD were finally channelled into the sewers after having supplied the many public baths such as the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Trajan, the public fountains, imperial palaces and private houses. The continuous supply of running water helped to remove wastes and keep the sewers clear of obstructions. The best waters were reserved for potable drinking supplies, and the second quality waters would be used by the baths, the outfalls of which connected to the sewer network under the streets of the city. The aqueduct system was investigated by the general Frontinus at the end of the 1st century AD, who published his report on its state directly to the emperor Nerva.
Tamagawa Aqueduct
The aqueduct was created following a request for permission from the people of Kojimachi and Shibaguchi to build another aqueduct, drawing the waters of the Tama river. The government provided 7,500 ryō for the construction, 3,000 ryō were collected by public subscription. Construction on the 43 km long aqueduct, which runs from Hamura, Tokyo to Yotsuya, Tokyo, began in April 1653. The section from Hanemura to was fully excavated within eight months and the entire aqueduct was completed in eighteen months. The project was undertaken by the Seiemon brothers who were awarded the surname "Tamagawa" in honour of their accomplishment. Prior to the construction, the two brothers were considered "mere peasants". Before the construction of the aqueduct the city was served by a single, and insufficient, Kanda Aqueduct.
Aqueducts on the C&amp;O Canal
The Licking Creek Aqueduct (#6) on section 222 was begun in 1835. In 1837 the contract was reassigned when the original contractor, Holdsworth, died. It was finally completed in May 1938 at the cost of $48,023.85. This is the shortest aqueduct, 50 feet long.
Odivelas
In 1731, John V decreed the beginning of the construction of the Águas Livres Aqueduct, that began in the "Fonte das Águas Livres" near Carenque and ended in reservoir in Amoreira (completed in 1834). The Amoreira reservoir (), albeit a beautiful space, has a capacity for which were transported through subterranean tunnels to the numerous fountains in Lisbon. The aqueduct was never totally efficient, and its waters were impure and in low quantities. Much later, in 1833, the "Quinta da Pentieira" was constructed in the parish of Pontinha, as a cemetery for victims of cholera. Until the 19th century, Lisbon was a city infected by epidemics with poor quality sources of water. Many of the richer citizens paid men (many from Caneças) to deliver to their homes potable water. Water from Caneças was of a good quality, and its fountains provided a quantity of water that was transported by carriage or barrel to residents of Lisbon, in addition to laundry services and horticultural products.
Santa Clara Aqueduct
Founded at the beginning of the 14th century, the monastic community of Santa Clara always debated the problems with water supply to the monastery in the territory of Vila do Conde. At that time a tank (the "arca de água") was constructed within the monastery, which quickly became insufficient to the communities needs. In 1626, the abbey D. Maria de Meneses, from the House of Pentieiros, purchased lands and contracted a master-builder to construct an aqueduct to bring waters from a spring in Terroso, in Póvoa de Varzim, to support the convent. The construction was interrupted by abbey D. Catarina Lima in 1636, owing to the discovery of a significant slope, making the prior work useless.
Aqua Marcia
The Aqua Marcia () was one of the longest of the 11 aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome. The aqueduct was built between 144–140 BC, during the Roman Republic. The still-functioning Acqua Felice from 1586 runs on long stretches along the route of the Aqua Marcia.
Cochituate Aqueduct
The aqueduct was built in 1846 to 1848 to convey water from Lake Cochituate to the Brookline Reservoir. Its route was long and passed through Natick, Wayland, Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline. From there, pipelines ran to small distribution reservoirs throughout Boston, including Beacon Hill Reservoir atop Beacon Hill. In 1848 Lake Cochituate's water first flowed into Frog Pond on Boston Common in a ceremony that drew 100,000 people.
Varna
The main aqueduct of Odessos was recently discovered during rescue excavations north of the defensive wall. The aqueduct was built in three construction periods between the 4th and the 6th centuries; in the 4th century the aqueduct was built together with the city wall, then at the end of the 4th to early 5th centuries when a pipeline was laid inside the initial masonry aqueduct. Thirdly in the 6th century an extra pipeline was added parallel to the original west of it and entered the city through a reconstruction of the fortress wall.
District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority
In 1852, Congress commissioned the construction of an aqueduct system to provide a reliable supply of drinking water to the city from the Potomac River. The US Army Corps of Engineers designed and built the Washington Aqueduct, which began full operation in 1864. Filtration plants were added to the system in the 20th century.
Colorado River Aqueduct
The MWD considered eight routes for the aqueduct. In 1931, the MWD board of directors chose the Parker route which would require the building of the Parker Dam. The Parker route was chosen because it was seen as the safest and most economical. A $220 million bond was approved on September 29, 1931. Work began in January 1933 near Thousand Palms, and in 1934 the United States Bureau of Reclamation began work on the Parker Dam. Construction of the aqueduct was finished in 1935. Water first flowed in the aqueduct on January 7, 1939.
Fountain
In 1537, in Florence, Cosimo I de' Medici, who had become ruler of the city at the age of only 17, also decided to launch a program of aqueduct and fountain building. The city had previously gotten all its drinking water from wells and reservoirs of rain water, which meant that there was little water or water pressure to run fountains. Cosimo built an aqueduct large enough for the first continually-running fountain in Florence, the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria (1560–1567). This fountain featured an enormous white marble statue of Neptune, resembling Cosimo, by sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati.
Piscina Publica
There is some disagreement as to whether the reservoir was fed by one of several springs in the immediate area or by the "aqua Appia", the first public aqueduct built by Appius Claudius Caecus. Located just inside the Porta Capena, it was the first site for both communal water distribution and sports. The aqueduct supplied water for wool processors near the "piscina".
Italica
The aqueduct of 37 km total length was first built in the 1st c. AD and extended under Hadrian to add a more distant source for supplying the expanded city. It fed a huge cistern at the edge of the city which remains intact. Some of the piers of the arches are still visible near the city.
Longdon-on-Tern
Settled since at least the Normans, the village is notable as the site of the Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct, the first large-scale cast iron navigable aqueduct, designed and built by Thomas Telford for the canal. The aqueduct is Grade I listed and a preserved as a scheduled ancient monument.
Amoreira Aqueduct
The first municipal azulejos were erected in 1864, and were later supported with alternates dating to 1873. In 1870, the aldermen requested that the Cortes provide funding to repair and clean the structure, as well as construct a supplementary canal to facilitate future cleaning. During these motions, it was indicated that calcium buildup in the pipes should be removed every ten years, to remedy these problems.
Fontana delle Tartarughe
In 1561, Pope Pius IV decided to completely reconstruct the aqueduct. The project was given to the Papal architect, Giacomo della Porta (1532–1602), who built some of Rome's most famous fountains, and also completed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica following Michelangelo's and rebuilt the facades of some of Rome's major churches. The reconstruction of the aqueduct was finished in August 1570, with the first water flowing to a reservoir near the present Trevi Fountain.
Derby Canal
The Holmes Aqueduct proved to be extremely troublesome. Aqueducts up to that time had been made of stone, but several short arches would have been necessary, causing obstruction to the flow of the stream. The single-span cast iron structure that Outram devised, and completed in 1796, was the first of its kind, as it was completed a few weeks earlier than Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct, the structure by Thomas Telford at Longdon-on-Tern on the Shrewsbury Canal.
In 1802 there was a partial failure, probably due to the sides bowing and transferring too much weight to the base where they joined to the deck. After remedial work it failed again in 1812 and was reinforced with timber baulks. Although plans were prepared for replacement in stone, it survived until 1930, when the bottom plates were replaced by a wooden base, which was sealed by puddling.
History of municipal treatment of drinking water
Throughout most of human history the primary means of acquiring untainted water was to avoid the problem and bring in water from an outside source that did not require treatment. The Romans did this with their aqueducts. London's New River was constructed, beginning in the early 17th century as a means of bringing in clean water from outside the city. The New River was slow flowing, which helped to increase sedimentation. It also had screens installed every few miles to catch any debris and weeds. These screens required periodic maintenance and workmen were employed to clean them and cut back the weeds. The new river would meet London's needs well enough that there were few complaints before the 19th century, although the water supplied was rarely used for drinking directly, rather it was more likely used for washing or the brewing of beer.
Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct
The cast iron canal aqueduct was designed by Thomas Telford and built in 1796 to carry the Shrewsbury Canal across the River Tern near Longdon-on-Tern in Shropshire. The aqueduct was opened one month after Benjamin Outram's cast iron Holmes Aqueduct on the Derby Canal, the world's first cast iron canal aqueduct. Since the closure of the Shrewsbury Canal in 1944, the aqueduct has been disused. The aqueduct is an Historic England Grade I listed building and has been on the register since 30 March 1971.
Hers Aqueduct
The Hers Aqueduct (, also "Aqueduc des Voûtes") is one of several aqueducts, or water bridges, created for the Canal du Midi. It crosses the river Hers-Mort near the village of Renneville, south of Villefranche-de-Lauragais. The structure was first built in 1688-1690, but the present structure is the result of modifications by Jean-Polycarpe Maguès in 1806, chief engineer on the Canal du Midi. It has been listed since 1998 as a "monument historique" by the French Ministry of Culture.
Almuñécar
To meet this demand the Romans built in the 1st century AD four miles of water conduit in the valleys of the Rio Seco and the Rio Verde, including five significant aqueducts. All, remarkably, are still standing and four of them are still in use after 2,000 years – adapted by the Moors over the centuries to serve the needs of crop irrigation. The Roman water supply also served the town and recent excavations in the town centre have uncovered the fifth aqueduct and the Roman baths.
Avon Aqueduct
The Barton Aqueduct of 1761, and subsequent canal aqueducts in the United Kingdom, used large quantities of masonry and pudding to obtain watertightness. After the success of The Iron Bridge in 1789, however, cast iron was used by Telford on aqueducts such as Chirk and Pontcysyllte. Aqueducts built in the early part of the 19th century use either puddle clay or an iron trough in no particular pattern. The Avon Aqueduct uses an iron trough to achieve watertightness, as well as containing the outward pressure of the water, allowing it to be of more slender construction than a purely stone aqueduct such as the Kelvin Aqueduct.
Aqua Traiana
The Aqua Traiana (later rebuilt and named the Acqua Paola) was a 1st-century Roman aqueduct built by Emperor Trajan and inaugurated on 24 June 109 AD. It channelled water from sources around Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometers (25 mi) north-west of Rome, to Rome in ancient Roman times but had fallen into disuse by the 17th century. It fed a number of water mills on the Janiculum, including a sophisticated mill complex revealed by excavations in the 1990s under the present American Academy in Rome. Some of the Janiculum mills were famously put out of action by the Ostrogoths when they cut the aqueduct in 537 during the first siege of Rome. Belisarius restored the supply of grain by using mills floating in the Tiber. The complex of mills bears parallels with a similar complex at Barbegal in southern Gaul.
Slateford Aqueduct
The Barton Aqueduct of 1761, and subsequent canal aqueducts in the United Kingdom, used large quantities of masonry and puddling to obtain watertightness. After the success of The Iron Bridge in 1789, however, cast iron was used by Telford on aqueducts such as Chirk and Pontcysyllte. Aqueducts built in the early part of the 19th century use either puddle clay or an iron trough in no particular pattern.
Wignacourt Aqueduct
On 9 January 1610, works on the aqueduct continued under the direction of another Jesuit called Padre Natale Tomasucci. By this time, Garzez had died and was succeeded as Grand Master by Alof de Wignacourt. In July 1612, the Bolognese hydraulic expert Bontadino de Bontadini took over the project, probably on the recommendation of Inquisitor Evangelista Carbonesi. Bontadini designed a new watercourse with water being carried through underwater pipes, and over stone arches when there were depressions in the ground. Bontadini was assisted by a Maltese "capomastro" Giovanni Attard and several other engineers. 600 local workers were employed in the construction of the aqueduct, which was completed in 1614 and inaugurated on 21 April 1615. The aqueduct cost a total of 434,605 scudi, most of which were paid by Grandmaster Wignacourt. The aqueduct was therefore named in his honour.
Aqua Claudia
The aqueduct went through at least two major repairs. It was said that "Aqua Claudia" was used for ten years, then failed and was out of use for nine years. The first repair was done by Emperor Vespasian in 71 AD; it was repaired again in 81 AD by Emperor Titus.
Lamas Aqueduct
The first part of the watercourse up to Elaiussa Sebaste was constructed by Roman Empire in the 1st or 2nd centuries. But after Elaleussia Sebaste lost its former glory, the second part up to Corykos was constructed by Byzantine Empire in the 5th or 6th centuries.
Croton Aqueduct
The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueducts, which were among the first in the United States, carried water by gravity from the Croton River in Westchester County to reservoirs in Manhattan. It was built because local water resources had become polluted and inadequate for the growing population of the city. Although the aqueduct was largely superseded by the New Croton Aqueduct, which was built in 1890, the Old Croton Aqueduct remained in service until 1955.
Romanization of Hispania
An important town needed a constant water supply for the thousands of people gathered in one place which could be sometimes several miles away from natural water source. To achieve this continuous flow of water the Romans built aqueducts.
The Roman aqueducts, despite their appearances, were built mostly underground. However, they are now known as the monumental aqueducts built to bridge geographic barriers in order to give a continuous water channel. The slenderness of this type of construction, along with the tremendous height reached by some of them, makes them the most beautiful works of civil engineering of all time, especially taking into account the difficulties overcome to build them.
Zaghouan Aqueduct
The date of the construction of the aqueduct is not entirely clear. Sources mention a visit by the Emperor Hadrian in 128, with which a five-year-long drought is meant to have come to an end. The water shortage resulting from the drought might have convinced him that the people should not rely only on rainwater any more. A second event which might have inspired it was the opening of the Baths of Antonius in Carthage in 162. These facilities on the same scale as the Imperial baths in Rome demanded a steady supply of water, which could not be fulfilled with rain water.
Chapultepec aqueduct
After his arrival in the Aztec empire, Hernan Cortes discovered the economic and political importance of the Chapultepec aqueduct. He took advantage of the city's dependence on the aqueduct and blocked the fresh water supply, eventually destroying it. Shortly after the Spanish conquest, he set about dividing the land among the conquistadors. He wanted to take the forest of Chapultepec for himself, but Charles V, King of Spain, denied his request and decreed that the springs were needed to provide the people with potable water and were thereby the property of the city of Tenochtitlan. Construction of a new aqueduct started under the reigning Viceroy Fernando de Alencastre, 1st Duke of Linares (1711-1716). The structure became known under another name as the Aqueduct of Belen, named after an old Belen convent it passed by. Built along the same path as the Aztec engineered aqueducts, it was constructed using Roman architecture, reflected in its 904 arches. In completion, it reached a total length of 4663 varas, roughly 4 kilometers. In conquest times, the aqueduct supplied the city with the majority of its freshwater, however, waterborne illness was a concern. In an effort to reduce the possibility of external contamination, iron and lead pipes were installed to replace the open troughs during the 19th Century. These shielded the water from air and outside contaminants but did not decrease the number of pathogen related illnesses and death.
Cochituate Aqueduct
The aqueduct formed a key link in Boston's first major water supply system. Its genesis dates to 1845, when a Sudbury River tributary was impounded to form Lake Cochituate in Natick. The artificial lake, with of watershed, of storage, and yield of of water per day, became the cornerstone of Boston's public water system.
History of New York City (1784–1854)
The fires of the period and the increased need for water for industry led to the construction of the Croton Aqueduct water system between 1837 and 1842. The aqueduct brought fresh water from the Croton Dam in northern Westchester County over the High Bridge to the Receiving Reservoir between 79th Street and 86th Street and Sixth and Seventh Avenues. From the Receiving Reservoir water flowed into the Distributing Reservoir, better known as the Croton Reservoir. The aqueduct opened on October 14, 1842, with great celebration. President John Tyler, former presidents John Quincy Adams and Martin van Buren, and New York Governor William H. Seward were among those in attendance.
Medici Fountain
The first difficulty of construction was the lack of water in the Left Bank of Paris. Unlike the Right Bank, where the water table was near the surface, and there were many wells and two aqueducts which served the city, the water table on the Left Bank was deep underground and all water had to be carried from the Seine. As a result, the city had expanded far from the Right Bank of the Seine, but had hardly grown at all on the Left Bank. This problem was finally solved by the construction of the aqueduct of Arcueil, between 1613-1623.
Paris in the 17th century
Marie de' Medici needed abundant water for her new palace and gardens on the left bank, which had few sources of water. Recalling that the ancient Romans had built an aqueduct from Rungis to their baths on the left bank, Sully, the minister of public works, sent engineers to find the route of the old aqueduct. A new aqueduct thirteen kilometers long was constructed 1613 and 1623, ending near the present-day Observatory, bringing 240,000 liters of water a day, enough for the dowager Queen's gardens and fountains. It enabled her to construct one of the best-known fountains in Paris today, the Medici Fountain, a reminder of her childhood in the Pitti Palace in Florence, in the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace.
Lugdunum
Lugdunum seems to have had a population of several thousand at the time Roman foundation. The citizens were administratively assigned to the Galerian tribe. The aqueduct of the , completed around 20BC, was the first of at least four aqueducts supplying water to the city.
Thirlmere Aqueduct
The aqueduct was built to carry approximately per day of water from Thirlmere Reservoir to Manchester. The construction of the reservoir and aqueduct was authorised by the Manchester Waterworks Act of Parliament. The first phase was completed in 1897 and, for the pipeline sections, subsequent phases were completed in 1925. The first water to arrive in Manchester from the Lake District was marked with an official ceremony on 13 October 1894.
Greater Winnipeg Water District aqueduct
Surveying along the route of the aqueduct began in 1913 and construction commenced on 1 March 1914. The first work to be undertaken was the building of a 110-mile railway, including siding and spurs, a telephone line, clearing and fencing of the right-of-way, and completion of the Falcon River diversion. Construction of the aqueduct began in May 1915 and was virtually completed by the end of 1918.
Acqua Felice
The Acqua Felice is one of the aqueducts of Rome, completed in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V, whose birth name, which he never fully abandoned, was Felice Peretti. The first new aqueduct of early modern Rome, its source is at the springs at Pantano Borghese, off Via Casilina. Its length is , running underground for from its source, first in the channel of Aqua Alexandrina, then alternating on the arches of the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Marcia for to its terminus at the Fontana dell'Acqua Felice on the Quirinal Hill, standing to one side of the Strada Pia (now Via del Quirinale), so as to form a piazza in this still new part of Rome. The engineer was Giovanni Fontana, brother of Sixtus' engineer-architect Domenico Fontana, who recorded that the very day the new pope entered the Lateran, he decided that he would bring water once again to the hills of Rome, which had remained waterless and sparsely inhabited, largely by monasteries, since the Roman aqueducts had been destroyed in the sixth century. From the source, which Sixtus purchased, there was only a very small fall, and the work required an underground conduit as well as an aqueduct carried on arches. The work was completed within eighteen months, at the same time that Sixtus was engaged in laying out the street plan that would provide the arteries of modern Rome. By October 1586, water was running at his Villa Montalto, and by 1589 it was filling no less than twenty-seven public fountains.
The three-arched Fontana dell'Acqua Felice (designed by Domenico Fontana, 1587) marked the entry of the new water source into Rome, with the conventional "mostra" or showy terminus: "what makes a fountain a "mostra" is not essentially its size or splendor, but its specific designation as the fountain that is a public memorial to the whole achievement of the aqueduct." "Even in the seventeenth century this fountain was considered as being in very bad style ("pessimo stile")," Siegfried Giedion reported "and it is scarcely conceivable that such mediocrity was possible only two decades after the death of Michelangelo". Its disproportionately large attic, a billboard for the triumphant inscription, has an unbalanced stagey flatness; its proportions may be unfavorably compared to the Arco Scalette, Vicenza, erected in 1576, probably designed by Andrea Palladio ("illustration, right").
Seneca Aqueduct
Seneca Aqueduct — or Aqueduct No. 1 — is a naviduct that carries the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) over Seneca Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland. The C&O built eleven aqueducts along its length. Seneca Aqueduct is a unique structure, not only being the first built, but also the only red sandstone aqueduct on the C&O−and the only aqueduct that is also a lock (Lock 24, or Riley's Lock). It is located at the end of Riley's Lock Road in Seneca, Maryland.
Aqueduct (water supply)
Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops. Archimedes invented the water screw to raise water for use in irrigation of croplands.
Águas Livres Aqueduct
In 1748, although the project was still unfinished, the aqueduct finally started to bring water to the city of Lisbon, a fact celebrated in a commemorative arch built in the Amoreiras neighbourhood. From this period on, construction was overseen by other architects, including Carlos Mardel of Hungary and others. During the reigns of José I and Maria I, the network of canals and fountains was greatly enlarged.
Roman aqueducts of Toledo
The Romans captured Toledo in 193 BC. The aqueducts are difficult to date precisely. They seem to have been built in the 1st or 2nd centuries A.D.
Roman aqueduct
By 145 BC, the city had again outgrown its combined supplies. An official commission found the aqueduct conduits decayed, their water depleted by leakage and illegal tapping. The praetor Quintus Marcius Rex restored them, and introduced a third, "more wholesome" supply, the Aqua Marcia, Rome's longest aqueduct and high enough to supply the Capitoline Hill. The works cost 180,000,000 sesterces, and took two years to complete. As demand grew still further, more aqueducts were built, including the Aqua Tepula in 127 BC and the Aqua Julia in 33 BC. Aqueduct-building programmes reached a peak in the Imperial Era. Augustus' reign saw the building of the Aqua Virgo, and the short Aqua Alsietina that supplied Trastevere's artificial lake with water for staged sea-fights to entertain the populace. Another short Augustan aqueduct supplemented the Aqua Marcia with water of "excellent quality". The emperor Caligula added or began two aqueducts completed by his successor Claudius; the 69 km (42.8 mile) Aqua Claudia, which gave good quality water but failed on several occasions; and the Anio Novus, highest of all Rome's aqueducts and one of the most reliable but prone to muddy, discoloured waters, particularly after rain, despite its use of settling tanks.
First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline
The first water pipe that provided greater coverage was built in 1803-1804, bringing water from Hütteldorf. Vienna was growing too fast for the supply to be sufficient so, in 1836, the Emperor Ferdinand Aqueduct was built. It provided artificially filtered water from the Danube Canal. Initially, the water quality was acceptable, but the effects of the filtering gradually diminished and the health risk returned. Demand also continued to exceed supply.
Minden Aqueduct
The first canal bridge over the river Weser was built in 1914. It is a 370-metre-long concrete construction. At the end of World War II it was destroyed by the retreating "Wehrmacht" in 1945. In 1949, the renovated bridge was re-opened.
Los Angeles Aqueduct
The aqueduct project began in 1905 when the voters of Los Angeles approved a bond for the 'purchase of lands and water and the inauguration of work on the aqueduct'. On June 12, 1907 a second bond was passed with a budget of to fund construction.