PART 1 OF A 3 PART SERIES ~ NEW YORK CITY‘S WATER SYSTEM NECESSITATES USING ROOFTOP WATER TANKS – ALL 10,000 – 15,000 OF THEM!!!
New Yorkers love to brag about having the best-tasting drinking water in the country, although residents of high-rise buildings may not realize that their water makes an extra stop on its way from the reservoir. When high-rise residents turn on their taps to have a drink of water, take a shower or wash the dishes, the water comes from a tank located on the roof of the building. In addition to serving as a storage device, the tank creates water pressure through gravity which brings water to each apartment as needed… (By Eric Johnson)
Watch this impressive YouTube video (fantastic photography) on New York City’s Rooftop Water Tanks ~
A VERY INTERESTING TOPIC
Next blogs in series ~ Part 2: NEW YORK CITY’S WATER TANK CONSTRUCTION and Part 3: ‘WORD ABOVE THE STREET’ WATER PROJECT, 2013
To open this topic I’ve included a link to AARP Radio’s Prime Time Postscript on “NYC Water Tanks”: background information on this most unique water system.
Listen to a most interesting talk about New York City’s water system and the rooftop water tanks (all 10,000 – 15,000 of them!) that top all buildings that are higher than 6 stories!!!
“If you’re in New York City, take a look up at the iconic skyline. However, look past the skyscrapers and buildings of glass and at rather, the rooftop wooden water tanks. Producer Britta Conroy-Randall found out why rooftop water tanks are an essential – and beloved – feature of the city skyline.”
Listen to a funny incident related at the 3:54 time spot into the talk
I wonder if there are other ‘mega’ cities around the globe using the same bizarre (to me, at least, after hearing this for the first time) system???
These tanks have been “fixtures of the urban landscape for 100 years.”
The city’s water pressure system can’t supply enough pressure to take the water any further than 5 or 6 stories.
The rooftop water tanks are 12 feet high, 13 feet in diameter and most are made of redwood.
Interesting facts from ‘Longtime emblems of City Roofs, Still Going Strong’ by Jacoba Charles, June 3, 2007 ~
Younger cities often rely on electric pumps to supply water to skyscrapers, but New York’s aged infrastructure, built on shallow bedrock that results in extremely low water pressure, doesn’t allow that technology. Architects outside New York may not even think of using a rooftop tank to hold a building’s water supply, and if they did, who would build it?
To watch the tankmen practice their craft is to witness a construction technique that has transcended time, as was evident one day not long ago when a Rosenwach crew was building a water tank on the roof of a 24-story hotel rising near the Empire State Building. Three men moved nimbly around a narrow, railfree scaffolding almost 300 feet above the street, while two others handed up planks from the rooftop below. It took less than two hours to construct the body of the tank, setting vertical boards in place using only a hammer and a rope.
See you back here tomorrow for
Part 2: New York City’s
Rooftop Water Tank Construction.