The Legendary Collect Pond

The Legendary Collect Pond. . , After Collect Pond was buried, various legends arose., Legend 1: The pond supplied the city’s drinking water. , It did not. However, the city’s subterranean springs, which were the source of the pond’s water, fed two other water supply systems. The Tea Water Pump southeast of the pond provided water from the 1740s until 1800, by which time it had become too polluted. In 1799, Aaron Burr’s Manhattan Company sunk wells just south of the pond and these provided water for 40 years, although of poor quality. New Yorkers drank from these sources, as well as hundreds of neighborhood wells, until the Croton Aqueduct, which carried pure water from Westchester, was completed in 1842., Legend 2: England’s future King William IV nearly drowned while skating on the pond in 1782. , This was first reported in an 1869 biography; in fact, the prince had been pushed around the frozen pond on a blade-fitted chair without incident., Legend 3: Steam pioneer John Fitch tested a steamboat on the pond in 1796. , The legend was created in 1846 by a Fitch promoter. Though his fanciful account is often repeated, no evidence has been found to substantiate the story.