Topics Sewers & Drainage

A black-and-white image showing several figures standing on the shore, with a boat, several other figures and a building in the background

The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia, Part 2

Down Under!

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

The Sad History of Frankford Creek

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

Streams, islands, and ferries of early Philadelphia

Archival Storytelling: A snowy Super Bowl Sunday at Sydenham & Dauphin

Dauphin and Sydenham car crash, Jan. 17, 1978

Wheeled robotic sewer crawler in sewer pipe

Still photo from a video sewer inspection, 2000

Norman Lofton inspects sewer at Ditman and Sheffield, 1987

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

Half a Century of Clean Water

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 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