Subjects Sewers & Drainage

Pipes, pumping stations, interceptors or intercepting sewers, outfalls, separate and combined sewers, sewage treatment plants, and any other infrastructure related to the collection and treatment of sewage from homes and businesses.

Joe Cerrone, Inspector, Industrial Waste Unit, PWD, enters storm drain to search for source of oil spill, 1989

Sewer worker Anthony Holston enters sewer, 1990

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Manholes like this give access to city’s sewer system, 1961

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Sewer Inspections: Vintage Images

Black-and-white photo of industrial tank installation with smokestacks and factories in the background

Emscher Tank Installation at Essen Nord, Germany

Black-and-white photo of a man standing in a long trench

Sludge Drying Beds, Essen Nord, Germany

Black-and-white photograph of a man in a hat standing in a brick trench

Grit Chamber, Essen, Germany

Black-and-white image of two cylinders on a white surface

Effects of Expansion of Gas Bubbles in Enscher Sludge Shown in Right-Hand Cylinder

Black-and-white photo of heavy machinery

Sludge Presses for Grease Recovery, Bradford, England

Black-and-white image of a tray with three compartments and four small glass cylinders

Drain water from sludges obtained from sedimentation, septic and Emscher tanks

Black-and-white image of a brick sewer outlet that drains into a creek with trees and a hill behind it

Thomas Run sewer outlet at Cobbs Creek

Black-and-white image showing a man standing in a large concrete half-pipe

Thomas Run sewer outlet during construction