Everything about The Washington Aqueduct totally explained
The
Washington Aqueduct is an
aqueduct that provides the public
water supply system serving
Washington, D.C. and parts of its suburbs. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the
United States, the Aqueduct was commissioned by
Congress in
1852, and construction began in
1853 under the supervision of
Montgomery C. Meigs and the
US Army Corps of Engineers (which still owns and operates the system). Portions of the Aqueduct went online on
January 3,
1859, and the full pipeline began operating in
1864. The system has been in continuous use ever since. It is listed as a
National Historic Landmark, and the
Union Arch Bridge within the system is listed as a
Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Design and Facilities
The centerpiece of the Aqueduct is a 12-
mile (19
km)
pipeline which connects the system's
dam at
Great Falls with the
Dalecarlia Reservoir on the border with
Montgomery County, Maryland. The pipeline runs along what is now
MacArthur Boulevard, traversing some of the higher cliffs along the
Potomac River.
The Union Arch Bridge carries the pipeline and MacArthur Boulevard over
Cabin John Creek and the
Cabin John Parkway near the community of
Cabin John, Maryland. This bridge was said to be the longest
masonry arch bridge in the world for 50 years after its completion.
Water from Dalecarlia also flows on to the
Georgetown Reservoir in
Georgetown. From there, some of the waters flow to the
McMillan Reservoir through the
Washington City Tunnel.
System Expansion
The system originally used a single pipe for water delivery, and didn't have any
water treatment plants, relying instead on the
reservoirs to act as
settling basins. By the turn of the 20th century, however, Washington's growth and the high amount of
sediment in the Potomac's water kept the reservoirs from doing their jobs well, and so the first treatment plant, a massive
slow sand filter bed system, was installed at McMillan Reservoir, and was completed in
1905. The regular use of
chlorine as a
disinfectant began in
1923 at the McMillan plant. The McMillan plant wasn't replaced until
1985, when a
rapid sand filter plant was opened adjacent to it. Efforts are under way to redevelop the land the slow sand plant used, while maintaining some of the plant's sand
silos for historical purposes.
In the
1920s, the Aqueduct was upgraded with the addition of a second pipe from Great Falls to Dalecarlia, and a rapid sand filter plant was built at Dalecarlia Reservoir, which went online in
1927. The Dalecarlia plant is the biggest of the two plants in the system, having been upgraded in the
1950s, and is the plant that serves the
Virginia communities that use the Aqueduct. An additional intake was built at Little Falls in the 1950s.
Operations and Service Area
The Aqueduct is a
wholesale water supplier. The communities it serves are responsible for billing customers and managing water mains. The service area is comprised of:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Washington Aqueduct'.
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