Farmington Aqueduct - Avon Twn, CT
Posted by: 
ODragon
N 41° 45.325 W 072° 49.230
18T E 681195 N 4624916
An aqueduct from the 1800s.
Waymark Code: WM4TEA
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 09/27/2008
Views: 33
The Farmington Aqueduct contained a wooden trough 280 feet long, 6 feet deep and 14 feet wide, supported by two huge abutments at each end and six massive sandstone piers rising 40 feet from the solid rock of the river bed. A six-foot-wide wooden platform elevated along the top of the piers served as a towpath for the horses dragging the boats through the aqueduct's waterway. Crossing the rive on the Farmington Aqueduct so high in the air was a terrifying experience for both man and beast.
After the canal was abandoned in 1848, the aqueduct fell into disrepair and the wooden structure eventually collapsed into the river. In the 1880s, two of the piers were dismantled and the stones reused in local building construction. The remaining four piers were destroyed in Connecticut's 1955 flood. Today, the remains of the two abutments on either side of the river and the large stone base of one pier on the easter riverbank are still visible.
Related website: Not listed
When was it built?: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
To log a waymark in this category visit it and share your thoughts about the visit. It would be nice to also see photos of the aqueduct.