Mill Creek Sewer under construction, 1883
The Mill Creek Sewer in West Philadelphia, under construction at 47th and Haverford Avenue, 1883. This large sewer, built over a 25-year period, ran for five miles and obliterated the West Philadelphia stream for which it is named.
This sewer was one of many built in the 19th century that encapsulated a natural stream in a pipe and then used the resulting sewer as a drainage conduit for the surrounding neighborhood. This sewer emptied into the Schuylkill at 42nd Street; it was one of more than 100 sewers in the city that, by 1900, emptied their raw wastes into the city's rivers and creeks, grossly polluting them.