Subjects Natural Environment

Requiem for a stream: Adams Run in Oak Lane

Smith’s and Windmill Islands

Cobbs Creek: A Brief Historical Overview by Adam Levine

High Water: Flooding in Philadelphia

Visionary planning report for Philadelphia region, 1928

Imagine a Day Without Water

Black-and-white aerial photo of a creek bend with industrial buildings surrounding it

The Sad History of Frankford Creek

Image shows multicolored trees and a river cutting through them with two bridges visible

Watersheds: Learning to care for and protect our local water resources

Black-and-white photograph depicts a large brick sewer tube lying on a barren landscape

Streams, islands, and ferries of early Philadelphia

Gritty and the Phanatic in Ida’s Floodwaters

Black-and-white image of an ornately lettered document with a decorative border

Images from ‘The Water Supply of the City of Philadelphia by a proposed Aqueduct from Norristown Dam’

Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. 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 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.

Fairmount Gardens with the Schuylkill Bridge, 1839