City of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Showing Altitudes and Sewers.
SurveyorSurveyed by
Unknown
Date1878
MediumLithography; black printer's ink on wove paper
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (image height x width): 15 1/8 x 14 1/2in. (38.4 x 36.8cm)
Sheet (height x width): 16 5/8 x 15 7/8in. (42.2 x 40.3cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number1982.129.1
DescriptionMap of Bridgeport, Connecticut, from North Avenue to the north, West Stratford to the east, the Long Island Sound to the south, and Mountain Grove Cemetery to the west. The city is divided into six numbered sections, possibly wards. Buildings are shown with shaded rectangles. Most of them are not labeled, with the exception of the railroad freight house, steamboat and railroad docks, and and horse car depot. The streets are named and many of them have numbers and "x"s inscribed near the intersections that represent the locations of sewers and elevation above mean high water. The New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad line runs through the city. The Pequonnock (Poquonock) River and Cedar Creek are also shown.
Label TextSewers in the nineteenth century were a means of conveying raw sewage to a nearby river or ocean where it would be diluted and dissipated. The sewer lines in this 1878 map of Bridgeport are shown discharging directly into Cedar Creek and the Pequonnock River. One line even runs through Seaside Park to discharge into Long Island Sound. The altitudes indicate the angle of the slope and therefore the rate of flow within the sewer lines.Concerns about the spread of disease led to the introduction of the chemical treatment of sewage towards the end of the century, but many towns and cities continued to discharge raw sewage into waterways well into the 1900s.
NotesCartographic Note: Scale: 2 inches equals 2400 feetStatus
Not on view
