Topics Infrastructure

Map Lovers’ Monday: Schuylkill River from Wissahickon Creek to Norristown, 1913

Schuylkill River from below the South Street Bridge, 1873

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

Schuylkill River from below the South Street Bridge, 1873

Manayunk and the Schuylkill Navigation

Fairmount Water Works, by W. H. Bartlett, 1839. This engraving from an 1839 painting by William Bartlett shows the porch added to the Engine House about 1835 and the two gazebos built at the same time, all added to welcome visitors to the Water Works and a new saloon, or restaurant, in the Engine House. The powerful jet of water rising from the fountain in the South Garden, fed by a dedicated pipe under the full pressure of the reservoir, was depicted against the green foliage on the west slope of Faire Mount, near the east end of the Colossus. A barge is making its way downstream through the canal, headed under the Colossus to the busy port city of Philadelphia.

Fairmount Water Works, W.H. Bartlett, 1839

View from the Inclined Plane, near Philadelphia, 1838

View from the Inclined Plane near Philadelphia, 1838

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 1869, Schuylkill flood, 1869

Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Schuylkill Flood 1869

Tinted image of a single-arch bridge over a river with landscape in the distance

Lancaster/Schuylkill Bridge (Upper Ferry Bridge)

Race Bridge, Fair Mount Water Works, 1834 (Graff05.63)

Race Bridge, Fairmount Water Works, 1834

The Day Fairmount Dam Vanished