Documentary History of American Water-works

Cast Iron Pipe List

Installations of Cast Iron Water Pipe through 1865

Year	#	City	State	Length (Feet)	Size (inches)	Manufacturer	Remarks
1796		Philadelphia	PA				The President and Managers of the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal advertised for cast-iron pipe "to supply the City of Philadelphia with water."
1799	1	New York City	NY	400	7		"cost 3 dollars per foot, including the putting down."
1801	2	Philadelphia	PA	84	6	Robeson & Paul, Philadelphia merchants who were running the Weymouth Furnace at Atsion, N. J.	"Directions have been given to place these pipes, fourteen in number, each six feet long, under the greatest pressure of the water, in order to prove a method of securing their joints, which it is supposed will be substantial, and cheaper than the common mode." Cost of pipe was $1.53 per foot. Wider use of iron pipe was recommended in 1818 and a summary of wood and iron pipes installed each year from 1801 through 1854 is included in the 1875 Annual Report of the Chief Engineer.
1807	3	Baltimore	MD		2½ to 6	Samuel Hughes, who had bought the Principio Furnace in 1785.	"contracted in June, 1805, with Samuel Hughes, of Harford County, for a supply of cast-iron pipes ranging from two and a half to six inches, at from sixty-five dollars to eighty dollars per ton/" By 1829 30,530 feet of iron pipes had been installed.
1813	4	Albany	NY	3 miles?	6	Holley & Coffing, Salisbury, Connecticut	"a bore of six inches diameter, three feet in length, and five eights of an inch thick" "conveyed in a six-inch pipe for a distance of about three miles" Replaced wood logs.
1813	5	Bethlehem	PA
1819	6	New Orleans	LA		8		Suction pipe for steam engine
1820	7	Cincinnati	OH	700?			Approximately 700 feet from pump to reservoir
1821	8	Reading	PA
1821	9	Columbia	SC	1¼ miles	2 to 9 inches	May have been supplied by Messrs. Galloway and Bowman of Manchester, England, who also built the steam engine.	900 feet of 8 inch pipe from pump to reservoir, 1¼ miles laid by 1821, l7,654 feet by 1823, and 6 miles by 1828. No wood pipes were used.
1822	10	Boston	MA	3,150	8		3,150 feet of 8-inch cast iron pipe were installed in 1822. Additional cast-iron pipes were installed in 1840, and by 1845 a total of five miles of cast-iron pipe was in place.
1822	11	Columbia	TN				1822 Spring - Mr. Durant lays first iron pipe for water supply from Whites Spring to Columbia town Square.
1823	12	Washington	DC	1,700	3 & 4		"About 360 feet running measure to have a bore of 4 inches diameter, and the remainder, about 1340 feet, to have a bore of two and a quarter inches diameter."
1824	13	Wilmington	DE	3,000	3	Samuel Wright
1826	14	Frederick	MD			Catoctin Furnace
1828	15	Newark	NJ			Samuel Wright
1828	16	Allentown	PA
1828	17	Pittsburgh	PA	2,439	15
1829	18	Columbia	PA				those made of iron put in their place, at an expense of between three and four thousand dollars.
1829	19	Lynchburg	VA				The water is raised from a pump-house, on the margin of the river, to a reservoir, 245 feet above the surface of the water in the river, a distance of 2000 feet! The pump is a double forcing pump—diameter of the pump barrel, nine inches—it operates with a stroke of the piston, of four and a half inches—by a breast water wheel, 17 1-2 feet diameter; length of buckets, 8 feet. Under a useful head of water of 7 feet 9 inches, and fall of 2 feet 6 inches, the water is raised thro' cast-iron pipes 7 inches in diameter from a quarter to three-quarters of an inch thick, varying according to the degree of pressure they have to sustain.
1829	20	Winchester	VA				Pipes were delivered from Philadelphia.
1830	21	Detroit	MI				Three-inch iron pipe from pumping engine to reservoir.
1832	22	Fredericksburg	VA
1832	23	St. Louis	MO	7,000	4 & 6	Anthony W. Vanleer's Cumberland Furnace	Messrs. Vanleer and Co. for a further supply of iron pipe; and the city, is by that contract, responsible for 2,000 feet of six-inch iron pipe, and 5,000 feet of iron pipe four inches in diameter
1832	24	Richmond	VA	2,400	8	Samuel and Thomas S. Richards of Philadelphia	The cast iron main from the pumps to the reservoir, is 2,400 feet long, 8 inches diameter and for 450 feet from the pump is ¾ of an inch thick, and for the remaining distance of 1,950 feet to the reservoir is only 9-16 of an inch in thickness.
1833	25	Pleasant Hill	KY
1833	26	Nashville	TN				Iron pipes were laid from the reservoir to Broad Street, and up Second Avenue to the Square. The system was built by twelve Negro slaves bought by the city.
1834	27	Salem	MA		6		From North Street down Essex Street as far as Newbury Street.
1834	28	Easton	PA
1834	29	Wheeling	WV
1836	30	Mobile	AL		3
1836	31	Pottsville	PA	3,500	6	Eckert and Guilford	Also 700 feet of 4 inch pipe
1837	32	Huntsville	AL		5
1837	33	South Union	KY	1,650			"the water was pumped through 'cast metal aqueducts,' into a cistern about 100 rods away.'
1837	34	Steubenville	OH	4,000	8
1837	35	Lancaster	PA	3,800	8
1839	36	Frankfort	KY
1840	37	Rochester	NY		6		Installed by A. J. Langworthy
1840	38	York	PA	11,436	3 to 7	Small and Geiger, now Smyser-Royer Company	Prices from $0.37½ to $1.10 per foot
1841	39	Hudson	NY
1841	40	Harrisburg	PA	31,613	4 to 12	Ellicott & Brothers	Cost $40,253.74 "including lead and freight"
1841	41	West Chester	PA
1842	42	Haverhill	MA		6		The town paid the additional cost of installing a 6 inch pipe over the 5 inch pipe proposed by the company.
1842	43	Zanesville	OH
1843	44	Burlington	NJ
1845	45	Leesburg	VA
1846	46	Canterbury	NH				Shaker Community
1846	47	Geneva	NY
1848	48	Akron	OH				Akron Cold Spring Water Company
1848	49	Norristown	PA	1,450	20
1849	50	Berwick	PA
1850	51	Ithaca	NY
1850	52	Burlington	VT				"They have threaded our streets with iron conductors."
1852	53	Buffalo	NY			Rossie Iron Works in Ogdensburgh	George Parish, who owned the Rossie Iron Works in Ogdensburgh, also took $125,000 in stock, for which he provided the iron pipes for the water system. 31 miles of pipe installed by 1860.
1852	54	Alexandria	VA	3,968		Iricks & Co., Lumberton NJ	4 to 10 inches diameter
1854	55	Sacramento	CA			Glasgow	Purchased by George Gordon of the Vulcan Iron Works, in anticipation of the city building water works.
1854	56	Savannah	GA	19 miles		Glasgow?
1854	57	Chicago	IL	8 ¾ miles		Messrs. Chollar, Sage & Dunham, West Troy, NY	Average price $44.50 per ton, delivered to Chicago
1854	58	Frostburg	MD
1854	59	Jersey City	NJ
1854	60	Bedford	PA
1854	61	Carlisle	PA
1856	62	Bordentown	NJ
1856	63	Cleveland	OH
1856	64	Pittston	PA
1857	65	Petersburg	VA
1858	66	Attica	IN
1858	67	Hillsboro	VA
1858	68	Rutland	VT
1859	69	Altoona	PA
1859	70	Nazareth	PA
1860	71	Louisville	KY
1860	72	Williamstown	MA
1860	73	Kalamazoo	MI	1,000	3
1860	74	Flemington	NJ
1861	75	Augusta	GA
1862	76	Portland	OR
1865	77	Chattanooga	TN			England?	System built by the Union Army with several miles of cast-iron pipe