A Hundred Miles To The Tap: The History Of The New York Water System

Every day, millions of New Yorkers drink some of the purest tap water in the world, delivered effortlessly by gravity from sources over one hundred miles away. Yet, beneath this simple act lies a dramatic, two-hundred-year history of monumental engineering, political ambition, and human sacrifice. This book unveils the epic, largely invisible story of the system that makes the modern city possible.

The narrative begins in a colonial city choked by fire and disease, where the desperate search for clean water led to a solution that would save the city but soon prove inadequate. Follow the relentless march of New York’s engineers as they pushed ever northward, waging a campaign to capture entire river systems in the Catskill and Delaware watersheds. This expansion required the flooding of dozens of communities, the displacement of thousands of people, and the permanent alteration of the landscape.

Journey deep underground with the sandhogs, the immigrant laborers who blasted the longest tunnels in the world through solid rock, often at the cost of their own lives. Discover the incredible feats required to build some of the world's most massive dams and construct a hidden, subterranean river stretching for nearly a hundred miles. This is a story not just of concrete and steel, but of the people who designed, built, and were sacrificed for this colossal undertaking.

The saga continues into the modern era, detailing the generational struggle to build a third water tunnel deep beneath the city's streets to avert a future catastrophe. Learn how the system was transformed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks from an open public utility into a hardened, high-security fortress. After reading this book, you will never look at a simple glass of New York City tap water the same way again.