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[ Home > Page 20: Fountain Activated, Part 2 ]
Page 20: Fountain Activated, Part 2![Page 20: Fountain Activated, Part 2]()
The fountain in the Reservoir activated on July 18, 2003 To Commemorate 150th Anniversary Of Central Park. Now, for the third time as part of another important City celebration, the fountain, with its five nozzles spraying up to 60 feet in the air, has been set in motion. The fountain will also be illuminated after dark. The Central Park Reservoir was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in 1994, after the widow of the late President John F. Kennedy and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. When originally constructed in 1862 it was called Lake Manahatta. It served as additional storage for the nearby 35-acre Yorkville Reservoir built by the City as a distributing reservoir for the Croton water supply system, New York’s first out-of city water supply system located in Westchester County. Today, the five spouts of the fountain, representing each of the City's five boroughs, send plumes of water up to 60 feet high. The Yorkville Reservoir was removed from service in 1890. In the 1930s it was filled in to become Central Park’s Great Lawn. Lake Manahatta or the Central Park Reservoir with its north and south gatehouses, became the source water of the Croton system in Manhattan. The Central Park Reservoir can hold 1 billion gallons of drinking water. It was taken out of service in 1993 and placed on standby. Today the Central Park Reservoir plays an important role in the City’s ecology. Woodchucks, turtles, waterfowl including the rare double-breasted cormorants - and many fish species make the Reservoir home. Plant life such as cattails, sumac, maples and elms, as well as cherry trees that were a gift from the Japanese, are also visible around the Reservoir.
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