![Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. This 1839 engraving, published in London, shows a view of the South Garden from the walkways that brought visitors up the cliffside to the overlooks at the height of the reservoirs. The fountain used the pressure of the reservoirs and was a a delightful refreshment in hot weather, and a wonder at all times. One anachronistic element of this engraving is the Upper Ferry Bridge, which burned the year before the print was published. Harding’s Hotel, a popular resort, is at the western end of the bridge.](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/05_southgarden_750w.jpg?w=300)
![Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. This 1839 engraving, published in London, shows a view of the South Garden from the walkways that brought visitors up the cliffside to the overlooks at the height of the reservoirs. The fountain used the pressure of the reservoirs and was a a delightful refreshment in hot weather, and a wonder at all times. One anachronistic element of this engraving is the Upper Ferry Bridge, which burned the year before the print was published. Harding’s Hotel, a popular resort, is at the western end of the bridge.](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/05_southgarden_750w.jpg?w=300)
![Fairmount Water Works, by W. H. Bartlett, 1839. This engraving from an 1839 painting by William Bartlett shows the porch added to the Engine House about 1835 and the two gazebos built at the same time, all added to welcome visitors to the Water Works and a new saloon, or restaurant, in the Engine House. The powerful jet of water rising from the fountain in the South Garden, fed by a dedicated pipe under the full pressure of the reservoir, was depicted against the green foliage on the west slope of Faire Mount, near the east end of the Colossus. A barge is making its way downstream through the canal, headed under the Colossus to the busy port city of Philadelphia.](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/05_Bartlett_FWW_1839_crop_750w.jpg?w=300)
Fairmount Water Works, W.H. Bartlett, 1839
![“Fairmount Waterworks. From the forebay.” (From nature & on stone G. Lehman; Published by C.G. Childs & G. Lehman, 1833. Free Library of Philadelphia, Print & Picture Collection)](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/05_FWW_castner-21_7_Crop_750w.jpg?w=300)
Fairmount Water Works from the forebay, 1833
![Bird's eye color view of reservoirs, green areas of foliage, pink roads and blue water, with a dam prominent](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/05_I6-2_1839_GRV17_750w.jpg?w=300)
Fairmount and vicinity, 1839
![Color drawing of an elevated water reservoir on the banks of a river with green land shown on either bank](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/Course05_Graff0557.jpg?w=300)
Isometrical View of Fairmount Water Works, 1843
![The 1815 Engine House (shown here in an 1819 print) housed two steam-powered pumps that drew water from the Schuylkill River and pumped it into the reservoirs above the building, on top of Faire Mount. The artist showed smoke pouring from the south chimney, indicating that the South Engine was operating. The bridge just downstream was the covered Upper Ferry Bridge, an incredible 340 feet long, also completed in 1815. Designed and constructed by Lewis Wernwag, a native of Germany who had studied engineering there, the bridge opened in 1813. Formally called the Upper Ferry Bridge, it was also known as the “Colossus of Philadelphia” because — like the mythical Colossus of Rhodes — the bridge was held up only by piers at its two ends, with no intermediate supports. Made entirely of wood, the bridge was destroyed by fire in 1838.](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/fair-mount-WW-1819.jpg?w=300)
Fair Mount Water Works engine house, 1819
![Northern Liberties and Spring Garden Water Works](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/A.3_FINAL_NorthLibandSpringgarden_W254_LCP-scaled.jpg?w=300)
Northern Liberties and Spring Garden Water Works
![Tinted image of a single-arch bridge over a river with landscape in the distance](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/graff09.04-scaled.jpg?w=300)
Lancaster/Schuylkill Bridge (Upper Ferry Bridge)
![Race Bridge, Fair Mount Water Works, 1834 (Graff05.63)](https://waterhistoryphl.org/wp-content/uploads/graff05.63-scaled.jpg?w=300)