Fairmount Gardens with the Schuylkill Bridge, 1839
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 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.
European visitors were greatly impressed with the beauty and the power of the works, especially since it had been conceived and built in this country by locally trained engineers. Charles Dickens visited and had kind words for Fairmount, and English novelist Frances Trollope offered high praise as she recorded her visit to the waterworks in 1830. She considered it as deserving of fame as the water-works at Versailles, and called it “one of the very prettiest spots the eye can look upon.