Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Hours of Operation

• Old Croton Aqueduct's trail is accessible from multiple cross streets over 26 miles. For a map of the trail please see the Map. 15 Walnut Street is the location of the Park Office, however it is not the start or end of the trail. The Aqueduct has no parking areas of its own, but ample parking is available on most nearby streets.

• There is no charge to use the trail.
  
  Tours: Many are free but charges apply to some. Ossining Weir Chamber, Adults $5; children $2 To schedule tours of the Weir Chamber call Mavis Cain (914) 693-0529. For general questions about walks and tours, contact Sara Kelsey (646) 303-1448. A list of events is available at www.aqueduct.org or by clicking the "Upcoming Events" button on this page. Occasional programs/tours are offered in cooperation with Joseph G. Caputo Ossining Community Center, call for details (914) 941-3189
• Park is open year round from sunrise to sunset.

Maps

• Old Croton Aqueduct Trail Map (pdf)

Aqueduct Education Project
  
The Aqueduct Education project offers hands-on student tours and programs at three different historic sites in the Old Croton Aqueduct Historic State Park. Learn more about the variety of programs we offer by contacting Laura Compagni: Laura.compagni@parks.ny.gov.

The Aqueduct was built to help supply water to New York City, owing in part to its inadequate water supply. Major David B. Douglass, a West Point engineering professor, was the project's first chief engineer. He was succeeded in 1836 by John B. Jervis of Rome, New York, whose experience was in canal and railroad building. Construction, begun in 1837, was carried out largely by Irish immigrant labor.

An elliptical tube 8 ½ feet high by 7 ½ feet wide, the Aqueduct is brick-lined for most of its length, with a coating of hydraulic cement at bridge crossings and outer walls of hammered stone. Designed on principles dating from Roman times, the gravity-fed tube, dropping gently 13 inches per mile, challenged its builders to maintain this steady gradient through a varied terrain.

To do so the Aqueduct was cut into hillsides, set level on the ground, tunneled through rock and carried over valleys and streams on massive stone and earth embankments and - at Sing Sing Kill, the Nepperhan (Saw Mill) River and Harlem River - across arched bridges. Typically it is partly buried, with a telltale mound encasing it. As one learns to read the "clues," an understanding of how the tunnel engages the landscape deepens the trail experience.

Croton water first entered the Aqueduct at 5 a.m. on June 22, 1842 (followed by a dauntless crew in a small boat, the Croton Maid) and emerged at the Harlem River 22 hours later. The water eventually filled two above-ground reservoirs - on the present sites of the Great Lawn in Central Park and the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue - to great civic rejoicing.

Built to meet the city's needs for 100 years, its capacity was soon exceeded by the spiraling population growth to which is contributed. The New Croton Aqueduct, triple the size, was started in 1885 a few miles to the east and began service in 1890. The Old Aqueduct supplied decreasing amounts of water until 1955. (The northernmost portion reopened in 1989 and continues to supply water to the Town of Ossining.)

While the state trailway designation ends at the New York City line, the Aqueduct continues for six to seven miles through the Bronx. There its green corridor, managed by New York City Parks & Recreation, follows a southward route through Van Cortlandt Park, past the east edge of Jerome Park Reservoir and along Aqueduct and University avenues to the famed High Bridge, which carried the water in iron pipes across the Harlem River to Manhattan to serve a growing metropolis.

The park was created in 1968 and encompasses the Westchester County section of the Old Croton Aqueduct, between Croton Gorge County Park and the Yonkers-New York City line. This 26.2-mile portion of the total 41-mile Aqueduct route became Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, a recreational and cultural resource that appeals to a wide range of visitors. Tree-lined and grassy, traversing local villages and varied landscapes, the trail offers glimpses of historic and architectural treasures along the way. Now a National Historic Landmark, the Aqueduct is one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century.