Section of Water Pipe, c. 1797—1804

New York, NY

Cedar. New-York Historical Society, New York, NY.

This section of a wooden pipe was used by the Manhattan Company to supply water to New York City residents.

In 1799 Aaron Burr won a charter to supply New York City’s water through the Manhattan Company. But wanting to challenge rival Alexander Hamilton’s Bank of New York, he diverted 95% of the money to creating the Bank of the Manhattan Company (now JP Morgan Chase). While the bank thrived the quality of the water suffered, resulting in several cholera epidemics.

New York abandoned the wooden piping in 1842.

George Washington ordered his overseers to begin the 1767 wheat harvest on June 24, a hot, cloudy Saturday at the end of a dry week. Thus began twenty days of unrelenting exertion for Mount Vernon’s slaves and no little anxiety for their master, who for the first time had given over his holding almost entirely to the cultivation of grain. Much depended on the success of this experiment, which was a crucial element in Washington’s scheme to free himself of the debts he had accumulated over the years of failing to produce tobacco that would sell on London’s finicky market. Rich as he was in land, he feared that, like so many of his fellow planters, he too would become permanently dependent on his English merchant creditors. It was a fate he dreaded above all, for to suffer it meant that he would lose the essence of a gentleman’s character, independence, and with it the capacity to behave in a truly virtuous way.

— Fred Anderson

Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754 - 1766 (2000)