This aqueduct, built in 1892, carried the City's first “intercepting sewer” over Cresheim Creek. Running along the Wissahickon Creek and Schuylkill River, this pipe “intercepted” the flow of sewers that had formerly entered those streams and polluted the City's water supply. Raw sewage in drinking water caused a variety of diseases, including typhoid fever, which killed thousands of City residents in the 1890s and early 1900s. In the 20th century, a citywide system of interceptors was built to protect streams from pollution and carry sewage to treatment plants.