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Historic resources from our archives - images, maps, documents, and more.

Overhead image of the Fairmount Dam Fishway and the surrounding area, including the Art Museum, Boathouse Row and the Fairmount Water Works

Fairmount Dam Fish Ladder diagram

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.

Fair Mount Water Works engine house, 1819

Birkinbine Schuylkill Hydrographical Survey 1861-66

Schuylkill River Hydrographical Survey 1861-66 by H. P. M. Birkinbine

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

Spring Garden water testing lab, 1901

Bureau of Water Spring Garden Testing Station, 1901

Belmont Works Engine House

Engine House of the Belmont Works

Fairmount, bird's eye view from Lemon Hill (detail)

Fairmount Park, bird’s eye view from Lemon Hill, detail

Sketch of aquarium in former FWW building, interior, ca. 1950

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 1869, Schuylkill flood, 1869

Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Schuylkill Flood 1869

Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1884

Baldwin Locomotive Works

PWD's Joe Perillo with a large striped bass

Joe Perillo with a large Schuylkill striper in 2015