Fairmount Water Works
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Although America's great industrial centers rose from the banks of rivers that provided cheap power and transportation, Philadelphia was the first large American city to regard the delivery of safe water as a municipal responsibility.
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Waterworks was built on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River. Steam engines initially were used to lift water from the river but eventually gave way to waterwheels in July 1822. Powered by the river, pumps raised water into reservoirs high atop a nearby hill, Faire Mount on which the Philadelphia Art Museum now stands. By 1872, even more efficient water-driven Jonval turbines replaced the waterwheels.
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Waterworks is now a museum; this is a gazebo from which one can view Boat House Row.
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Uploaded on September 02, 2013