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[ Home > Page 19: Fountain Activated, Part 1 ]
Page 19: Fountain Activated, Part 1![Page 19: Fountain Activated, Part 1]()
Commissioner Christopher O. Ward announced today that at 6:15 AM DEP is activating the decorative fountain long submerged 38 feet beneath the waters of the Central Park Reservoir. This will be only the third time in its history that the fountain has been activated. The fountain in Central Park Reservoir originally activated in 1917. Turning on the fountain will not only highlight the Park’s anniversary, said Commissioner Ward, but will also be an entertainment and aesthetic enhancement for City residents who jog, walk, bike, picnic, bird watch and enjoy the plants and wildlife they see on and around the reservoir. Initially activated in October 1917, the fountain was built to celebrate the completion of the Catskill water supply system’s newly built reservoir the Ashokan Reservoir, and the dedication of the City’s first water tunnel an 18-mile tunnel built to transport drinking water from the Catskills to the Hillview Reservoir in the Bronx, and from there to homes in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The illuminated fountain in the Reservoir activated for the second time in 1998. In August 1998, as the City planned a full-day celebration to commemorate activation of Stage 1 of City Tunnel No. 3 at the Central Park Reservoir, long buried photographs of the 1917 ceremony and the fountain spray were uncovered. Deep sea divers were lowered into the Reservoir to try and locate the fountain to see if it could be reactivated to follow upon the historic significance of the 1917 ceremony. The successful search uncovered the fountain, along with five rusty nozzles and its original platform. After some sprucing up and retrofitting, on August 13, 1998, the fountain in the Central Park Reservoir was returned to service for the second time.
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