Although the Romans are considered the greatest aqueduct builders of the ancient world, qanāt systems were in use in ancient Persia, India, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries hundreds of years earlier. Those systems utilized tunnels tapped into hillsides that brought water for irrigation to the plains below.
Aqueducts were a vital aspect of society in ancient Rome, channeling fresh water from remote sources to city centers. Although aqueducts had been in existence before Roman times, it was the Romans who turned them into incredible architectural marvels, with impressive arched bridges and complex internal structures that could span across the territories of Rome. Many of these aqueducts have survived for thousands of years, a testament to the wonders of Roman engineering. Let’s take a look through some of ancient Rome’s most famous aqueducts that are still in existence today.
Pont Du Gard, Nimes
The Aqua Virgo, Rome
The Aqua Virgo has an important place in Roman history, as one of the first aqueducts to bring water into the city of Rome. It was originally built in 19 BCE by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Emperor Augustus, and underwent various restoration projects throughout the centuries to keep it standing strong. Although it fell out of use following the fall of the Roman Empire, it was renovated during the Renaissance to transport 80,000 cubic meters of fresh water into the Trevi Fountain in the center of present-day Rome, and it continues to perform this role well today!
This historic map of the Buffalo harbour shows where the Erie Canal once flowed.
For several years, teams of UB archaeologists from the Buffalo
Archaeological Survey have conducted digs in downtown Buffalo along
what was the Erie Canal. The artifacts they’ve found, when considered
together, help describe how Buffalonians lived and worked from the
early 1800s onward.
They’re conducting a “public outreach dig” under the
Skyway and invite you to come down on Aug. 18 and 22, from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m., to visit the dig site, observe its operation and speak with the
archaeologists and historians working there.
The site is bounded by Main Street and Hanover Street, east of the
Skyway Pier. Hanover Street runs between Marine Drive and Prime Street.
The project manager, historian Nathan Montague, is a research
support technician in the UB Department of Anthropology, which houses
the survey. He is directing the dig as part of the Erie Canal Harbor
Development Corp.’s Canalside Visitor Experience program.
Its mission is not only to excavate the area, but to educate the
public about the canal and canal life, generate interest in the canal
excavation and restoration work, and help people understand the work of
archaeologists in general.
“We’re in the early stages of excavating this dig site,” he says, “
but previous digs we’ve conducted nearby have uncovered pipe stems and
other personal items, dinner plates, commercial objects, a lot of brick
and mortar, coal dust and ash, and something that could be a
cannonball or part of a ship’s ballast. We will probably find similar
items and even may find a few surprises.”
During much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Buffalo was a major
international industrial and grain transport city, largely because of
its waterfront and the Erie Canal, which cut a swath through what are
now downtown streets.
“The canal was right downtown, so there was a great deal of
commercial activity along this stretch of the waterfront for the better
part of two centuries,” Montague says.
The canal’s main body, plus its many slips and adjuncts, covered a
lot of territory. It ran southwest parallel to the harbor and ended at
the Commercial (Street) Slip, where it met Lake Erie and the Buffalo
River. Most of the harbor section of the canal was filled in by the
1920s, which is why we don’t “remember” where it was.
“So this spot now looks like an abandoned field,” Montague says,
“but four- and five-story brick buildings once covered the entire block
of land on which we are digging.
“The lower floors of those buildings typically housed businesses
like warehouses, wholesale groceries, taverns, insurance companies and
hardware stores, while upper floors were used for lodging or storage.
Most of the buildings likely were erected in the 1830s and the last
ones weren’t torn down until the early 1970s,” he explains.
“Artifacts from the site will tell us the stories of the people who
lived and worked here when the Canalside neighborhood was the center of
Buffalo’s—and the nation’s—economy,” he says.
He says the dig offers the public has a unique opportunity to get a
sense of the layout of this area and how it has changed dramatically
over the past century, and to see how urban archaeology is conducted
and what it has to teach us.
The Archaeological Survey is a not-for-profit research, contracting
and applied archaeology institution within the UB Department of
Anthropology. It has been engaged in cultural resource management
projects for more than 30 years. The institution manages artifact
collections and information about historic and prehistoric
archaeological sites and buildings in Western New York.
The 1920's were a static period for the inner harbor, in between two
periods of change. By this time, the "old" Erie Canal was
no longer in use, having been supplanted in 1918 by the Barge Canal. The
waterfront was nearly completely built up by the D. L. & W
Railroad, which replaced the old mercantile Central and Long Wharf
areas. The D. L. & W. had opened its new passenger terminal.
Coming in the 1930's was the construction of the Memorial
Auditorium. The old Erie Canal bed and Commercial Slip would be filled
in. And the "canal district," the impoverished immigrant neighbourhood by
the harbour with so much colourful history will begin to be
demolished completely.
In 1959, the Buffalo plant of General Mills used all the wheat grown on
1.25 million acres of land, or 90,000 bushels per day. In 1961, a new
mill was constructed, not for expansion, but to create efficiencies. The
new milling method reduced the number of workers required for
operation. In addition to its standard flour and cereal products, the
Buffalo plant began to produce Wondra, a new flour. But the company had
diversified and was deep in debt, so in 1964, significant cuts were made
to the Buffalo operations. A milling unit was shut, reducing the
capacity by 62%. Three hundred of 1,300 employees lost their jobs. Also
in 1964, the iconic Dakota elevator was closed, reducing the company's
storage capacity by one million bushels, negatively affecting flour
milling. Despite this, Buffalo's plant was General Mill's largest.
This is an ink, wash and charcoal map of a section of the Erie Canal in
Buffalo. It shows part of Lake Erie, Buffalo Harbor, Ship Canal, a canal
basin, Thompson’s Cut, a guard lock and seven bridges. The red lines
indicate courses and distances. The blue lines indicate canal
right-of-way. The map also shows seventeen streets in the city of
Buffalo.
Date Original 1834
So in 1830 they started building the canals ans in 1834 there were ready?
Questions:
How many canals have been built lately with our advanced technology that people can use?
What other events happen in those years?
How many people were at that time employed in building these canals?
Length, Albany to Buffalo (original Erie Canal)363 miles
Number of locks, 1825 - 83
Number of locks, present day - 57
Elevation change, Albany to Buffalo - 571 feet
Canal dimensions, 1825 Original Erie - 4 ft deep x 40 ft wide; locks 90 ft long
Canal dimensions, 1862 Enlarged Erie 7 ft deep x 70 ft wide; lock 110 ft long
Number of aqueducts to bypass rivers and streams 18
Travel time from Albany to Buffalo, 1825-
5 days
The present society cannot even maintain it.
The Official History Possibly Incorrect:
Constructed in 1825, the Erie Canal is considered the “Gateway to the
West,” as it connected the port city of Buffalo with other cities along
the Great Lakes, as well as the port of New York City.
According to the Erie Canalway Heritage Center,
travel from Albany to Buffalo took two weeks by stagecoach in 1825, but
the Erie Canal shortened the journey to five days. The Erie Canal
brought goods and passengers, which directly contributed to Buffalo’s
prosperity in trade and helped support its growth in culture,
architecture and the arts in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The
Canal helped Buffalo eventually become the largest inland port in the
nation as well as the unofficial grain capital of North America, which
led to the construction of the city’s famous grain elevators, now used
to host live performances, events and historical tours.
Among the canal district there were also warehouses, businesses,
saloons, shops, residences, and hotels supported by the business and
tourism fostered by the canal.
In the late 1800s, railroads
became increasingly dominant and complemented the canal in supporting
Buffalo’s economic and cultural growth.
Buffalo’s outer harbor
also played a significant role in the city’s economy and history.
Located just outside of Erie Canal Harbor on the banks of Lake Erie, the
outer harbor became home to “heavy manufacturers” producing cement,
copper, steel, and other important materials that contributed to the
city’s industrial growth.
The Outer Harbor factories also provided
many blue-collar jobs, which helped contribute to the “hardworking
culture and down-to-earth disposition of the region and its residents,”
according to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation.
While
most of the city’s factories have since shut down, most Buffalonians
will agree that the city’s blue-collar work ethic and gritty mentality
remains.
Another fascinating technology used by the Romans was the water wheel
(Noria) which is represented in 4th century AD mosaics from Syria. The
noria is powered by the flow of a river and lifts water in buckets to
fields or aqueducts. There remain a number of ancient Arabic water
wheels along the Orontes River in and near Hama. These water works date
back to medieval times and as late as 1985 there were about 80 in use
along the river irrigating over 5000 ha. Today only a handful remain and
those in Hama itself are tourist attractions for the city – ancient and
elegant reminders of the long history of water management and
transference in Syria.
Water management is an issue that weaves itself throughout Syrian and
Mesopotamian history. Irrigation canals and water diversions have a
long archaeological and historical record. As one example – royal
inscriptions from 2500 to 2350 BC from Mesopotamia relate to how
Eannatum the ruler of Lagash extended the Inun water canal and how
disputes over canals and irrigated fields led to war between that state
and the neighboring state of Umma.
The Romans were the great water engineers and managers of the ancient
world. Throughout Syria there remain, sometimes in working order,
examples of Roman water management. One type of Roman water work that
is extremely abundant, and often still functional, is the Roman Cistern
(Abar Romani). These are small excavated caverns, often lined with Roman
hydraulic cement, that capture surface flow from the winter rains for
use in the dry summer. They typically have a large stone cover to
protect the water. There are at least 1115 of these cisterns in Syria.
On a small road near Qatura northeast of Aleppo one such cistern sits
beneath a set of Roman cave tombs and is still used by travelers.
During the 4500 years of South American
pre-Columbian history, numerous civilizations emerged, mainly in the
western coast and the Andean regions of South America, e.g., the Chavín,
the Moche, the Nazca, and the Huari. Around 1530 AD, almost all of
their former territories, people and knowledge formed part of the Inca
Empire.
This pre-Hispanic state featured the largest extension in
America, with a population of about 15 million inhabitants of different
cultures and languages, including territories along the coast and the
Andes of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina.
The
Incas, who existed as an empire for approximately 100 years before the
arrival of the Spanish, conquered or annexed almost every contemporary
civilization in the Andes and adjacent coastal regions, and assimilated
all knowledge they encountered, including hydraulic engineering
technologies
The
Cumbe Mayo archaeological site located near the Peruvian city of
Cajamarca, features the ruins of a 9 km long Pre-Incan aqueduct, built
around 1500 BC.
The aqueduct collected water from the Atlantic watershed and redirected
it on its way to the Pacific Ocean. The channel was excavated in
volcanic rock and is 35 to 50 cm wide and 30 to 65 cm deep .
Locally the channel follows a zigzag course, possibly to diminish flow
speed and prevent erosion.
Arguably, in order to be able to design and
build a channel with such a precision, the master builder must have
employed cutting and leveling instruments.
