Sewer History: Photos and Graphics


	Cross-sections of Boston sewers: all sizes from building laterals to interceptor sewers. Note different slopes/cross-sections and different construction materials. One such sewer design consisted of a wood invert with brick vertical side walls and a flat crown made of slabs of slate (locally available stone that was recognized to be more corrosion resistant). Source: Eliot C. Clarke, Main Drainage Works of the City of Boston, 2nd edition (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1885), Plate II.
	Early typical cross-sections of sewers, 1894. Source: Supplement to Engineering News and American Railway Journal, 8 February 1894.
	Poured-in-place monolithic concrete invert with wood falsework to hold concrete arch blocks in place until arch is completed. Coldwater, Michigan, 1902. Source: Harry V. Gifford, "Concrete Sewer Construction at Coldwater, Mich.," Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume XLVII, No. 5 (30 January 1902), p. 97.
	Design drawings for the incline on the Indian Run Sewer (flight sewer), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1904. Source: ""The Indian Run Sewer, Philadelphia," The Engineering Record, Volume 50, No. 27 (31 December 1904), p. 779.
	Gravity outfall sewer, concrete invert up to spring line, multiple-layer brick arch forms the crown. Wood false work holds up brick arch during construction. Utah, 1908. Source: Utah State Historical Society, Photo no. C-601 #1678. Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
	Designs for several sewer cross-sections, circa 1914. Source: Leonard Metcalf and Harrison P. Eddy, American Sewerage Practice, Vol. 1: Design of Sewers, 1st edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1914), p. 449.
	Main Street sewer construction in Biddeford, Maine, circa 1914. This and the following two photographs show construction combining a brick invert with cast-in-place concrete. Photographer: Robert Henry Gay. Source: Used with permission of the McArthur Public Library photo collection. All rights reserved. Image 7429 of the Maine Memory Network.
	Main street sewer construction in Biddeford, Maine, circa 1914. Possibly Summer Street. Photographer: Robert Henry Gay. Source: Used with permission of the McArthur Public Library photo collection. All rights reserved. Image 7442 of the Maine Memory Network.
	Main street sewer construction in Biddeford, Maine, circa 1914. Close-up of oval sewer. Sewer runs from White's Wharf up Main to Alfred and up to Summer Street. Photographer: Robert Henry Gay. Source: Used with permission of the McArthur Public Library photo collection. All rights reserved. Image 7443 of the Maine Memory Network.
	Turnout from combined sewer, Tucson, Arizona, 1915. Source: Alfred D. Micotti, Proposed additions and extensions to the sewer system of the city of Tucson, Arizona, M.S. Thesis, University of Arizona, 1915. University of Arizona Library Special Collections Call no. E 9791 1915 1.
	Combined sewer, Tucson, Arizona, 1915. Source: Alfred D. Micotti, Proposed additions and extensions to the sewer system of the city of Tucson, Arizona, M.S. Thesis, University of Arizona, 1915. University of Arizona Library Special Collections Call no. E 9791 1915 1.
	Typical early sewer cross-sections. Source: Harold E. Babbitt, Sewerage and Sewage Treatment, 6th edition (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 63.
	Typical early sewer cross-sections. Source: Harold E. Babbitt, Sewerage and Sewage Treatment, 6th edition (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 64.