By any measure, the New Croton Dam is an engineering marvel. For 14 years (from 1892 to 1906) 1,500 men used more than 500 pieces of heavy machinery, 745,000 barrels of cement, 100,000 tons of coal and an incalculable quantity of locally quarried stone to build the dam.
How did they do it? These images from the June, 1898 and January, 1899 issues of The Engineering Record show the temporary dam that diverted the Croton River and the buildings, train tracks, cableways and towers that were needed to excavate down to bedrock and construct what was then the tallest dam in the world and the largest hand-hewn masonry structure since the pyramids.
CROTON 