engineering

New Croton Aqueduct

New Croton Aqueduct is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand New Croton Aqueduct rather than just read about it. In short: The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system, carrying the waters of the Croton Watershed from the New Croton Dam in Westchester County, New York, to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx. Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct which it originally augmented, the new aqueduct opened in 1890.

Key takeaways

New Croton Aqueduct belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect New Croton Aqueduct to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of New Croton Aqueduct from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system, carrying the waters of the Croton Watershed from the New Croton Dam in Westchester County, New York, to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx. Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct which it originally augmented, the new aqueduct opened in 1890. The old aqueduct remained in service until 1955, when supply from the Delaware and Catskill Aqueducts was sufficient to allow taking it off line. Croton Watershed waters continue from the Jerome Park Reservoir to the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park for treatment, then out to distribution.

Overview The Croton Watershed is one of three systems that provide water to New York City, joined by the waters of the four reservoirs of the Delaware Aqueduct and two of the Catskill Aqueduct. The Croton system comprises 12 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes, with waters of the Boyds Corner Reservoir and West Branch Reservoir being mixed with and carried off by the Delaware Aqueduct to the Kensico Reservoir instead of continuing on to the New Croton Dam and thence the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx.

History

The New Croton Aqueduct opened on July 15, 1890, replacing the Old Croton Aqueduct. The newer aqueduct is a brick-lined tunnel, 13 feet (4.0 m) in diameter and 33 miles (53 km) long, running from the New Croton Reservoir in Westchester County to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx. Water flows then proceed toward the Croton Water Filtration Plant for treatment. Treated water is distributed to certain areas of the Bronx and Manhattan. In the late 1990s, the city stopped using water from the Croton system due to numerous water quality issues. In 1997 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of New York filed suit against the city for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act and the New York State Sanitary Code. The city government agreed to rehabilitate the New Croton Aqueduct and build a filtration plant. The filtration system protects the public from disease-causing microorganisms such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. The Croton Water Filtration Plant was activated in May 2015.

See also New York City water supply system Water supply network

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with New Croton Aqueduct

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what New Croton Aqueduct claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to New Croton Aqueduct before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about New Croton Aqueduct ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of New Croton Aqueduct

In research: New Croton Aqueduct appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses New Croton Aqueduct in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: New Croton Aqueduct is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aqueducts in New York (state), Geography of the Bronx, Interbasin transfer, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for New Croton Aqueduct outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study New Croton Aqueduct in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what New Croton Aqueduct means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain New Croton Aqueduct out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is New Croton Aqueduct in simple terms?

Why does New Croton Aqueduct matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study New Croton Aqueduct?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on New Croton Aqueduct.