If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, but want to stay local, look no further than one of Ridgewood’s hidden gems, the Ridgewood Reservoir.
Join nonprofit organization NYC H20 for a special tour of the Ridgewood Reservoir on Sunday, July 31. The tour kicks off at 10 a.m. and takes the group all around the reservoir, stopping at many of the location’s interesting spots, including the stone foundations that supported the walls of the reservoir and a former gatehouse and the abandoned force tubes that once pumped water from collection points up into the reservoir. The tour concludes at 11:30 a.m.
Matt Malina, director and founder of NYC H20, will be leading the walk.
“We will walk around the reservoir and along the causeway in between two of the basins and observe the forests, pond and wetland that now occupy the basins of the reservoir. We will see where the aqueduct, which ran along Conduit Avenue, entered the reservoir,” Malina said. “The aqueduct extended east on Long Island to Nassau County and brought water from additional reservoirs and wells into the Ridgewood Reservoir. We will stop at the gatehouses that controlled the flow of water out of the reservoir to the residents of Brooklyn.”
NYC H2O works to educate and inspire New Yorkers — especially teachers and students — about the incredible water system and its importance to New York as a natural resource and ecosystem, which includes the Ridgewood Reservoir.
The Ridgewood Reservoir was built in 1859 and was originally used to supply the former city of Brooklyn with water, much of which was used in many of Bushwick’s old breweries. The reservoir became obsolete in the 1950s as new reservoirs in the Catskills provided water, and the Ridgewood Reservoir was decommissioned in the 1980s.
The tour is free, and reservations can be made here.
