Subjects Infrastructure

Relative to Philadelphia's water and sewer systems, this includes pipes, pumps, plants, water works, reservoirs and other water storage facilities, and other aboveground and underground structures related to the city’s water supply, sewerage system, and drainage. In a larger sense, infrastructure includes many other human-made structures, including roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, canals, and other things of that nature.

Fairmount Park topographical map, showing East Park Reservoir, 1872

Schuylkill River from below the South Street Bridge, 1873

Philadelphia from Belmont, West Park (Picturesque America)

Fairmount Water Works (Picturesque America)

Chestnut Street Bridge, on the Schuylkill River (Picturesque America)

Black-and-white etching of the Wire Bridge at Fairmount, 1873

Wire Bridge at Fairmount, with canal lock and esplanade (Picturesque America)

Wire Bridge at Fairmount

Schuylkill Navigation lock at Fairmount (Picturesque America)

Schuylkill River from below the South Street Bridge, 1873

Dobson FLP

You would not have wanted to drink it: Philadelphia’s water supply in 1884

Ghosts of Water in Fairmount Park, Part II, with Adam Levine

Hand-drawn and colored map depicting a river with streams branching off of it

Map Lovers’ Monday: 1891 Water Supply Plan

Plan of Philadelphia, John Hills, May 30, 1796

Plan of Philadelphia, John Hills, 1796