These remarkable photo composites, which I created using the stitching feature in Adobe Photoshop, are worth zooming in on. These images might not be viewable on mobile devices, and are somewhat slow even on a desktop computer. You can download the images by right clicking on the thumbnails below and using the Save Link As command.
File size: 17.8 mb. Scanned at 980 dpi. Dimensions: 16668 x 8134 pixels
Source: Library of Congress
This composite was stitched together from two photographs in the Detroit Photographic Company Collection at the Library of Congress. Zooming in, you can see the details of the stonework on the buildings and retaining walls, see a ladder under the portico of the Engine House, and almost make out the name of one of the pleasure boats moored in the river. A canal boat or barge sits in the far left center, underneath the double-decker Callowhill Street Bridge. Even some of the buildings beyond the bridge can be recognized. If you have trouble manipulating this large photograph in your browser, try downloading it and viewing it on your computer. Mobile users may find viewing this image impossible.
File size 6.9 mb. Scanned at 300 dpi. Dimensions 5858 x 2912 pixels
Source: Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archives
This photograph, looking upstream at the water works, shows (left to right) the Mound Dam, the New Mill House, and the Old Mill House. The original Engine House, by this time in use as a saloon serving refreshments, is mostly hidden behind the trees on the left. In the river below the dam and in front of the water works are (left) a covered barge for swimming, and (right) the Globe Boat House, a boat rental concession, both of which satisfied some of the recreational needs of Philadelphians. The four open gates of the Mill Houses’ exit flumes, discharging water that had turned the turbines within the building, indicated that at least four of the seven turbines were in operation that day. This high-resolution photograph, a composite stitched together from two prints found in the Fairmount Park Archives, has many details worth zooming in on. See if you can find the person cutting the grass in the South Garden, or the extended wellhole for the intercepting sewer that runs along the river bank below the Esplanade. The cluster of buildings in the left center background are in Brewerytown, with the Berger & Engle establishment probably front and center, with towers of other breweries popping up behind and around it. (Thanks to Rich Wagner, Philadelphia’s beer historian, for helping ID the B&E brewery.)