Topics Technology & Engineering

Centre Square Water Works, Frederick Graff, Sr. Plans, 1799

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, portrait by Filippo Costaggini, 1880

Centre Square Water Works, Latrobe Plans, 1799

The 1815 Engine House (shown here in an 1819 print) housed two steam-powered pumps that drew water from the Schuylkill River and pumped it into the reservoirs above the building, on top of Faire Mount. The artist showed smoke pouring from the south chimney, indicating that the South Engine was operating. The bridge just downstream was the covered Upper Ferry Bridge, an incredible 340 feet long, also completed in 1815. Designed and constructed by Lewis Wernwag, a native of Germany who had studied engineering there, the bridge opened in 1813. Formally called the Upper Ferry Bridge, it was also known as the “Colossus of Philadelphia” because — like the mythical Colossus of Rhodes — the bridge was held up only by piers at its two ends, with no intermediate supports. Made entirely of wood, the bridge was destroyed by fire in 1838.

Fair Mount Water Works engine house, 1819

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960 (detail)

State Street pipeline construction

State Street pipeline construction, 1904

Belmont Filters construction 1903

Belmont Filters construction, 1903

Rudolph Hering

Rudolph Hering

DeLaval Beauty Shots 6

Electric Pump Installations at Lardner’s Point Pumping Station

Engine House of the Belmont Works, R. Newell photo (2004.057.0074.001)

Engine House, Belmont Works

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount

Stand Pipe of Philadelphia Water Works

Water Works Standpipe, 1853

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827