SarahHughes07
IMG_7488
McMillan Park and Sand Filtration Site is a twenty-five acre green space and decommissioned water treatment plant in northwest Washington, D.C. Two paved courts lined by regulator houses, tower-like sand bins, sand washers and the gated entrances to the underground filter cells provided a promenade for citizens taking the air in the park.
Below grade, there are twenty catacomb-like cells, each an acre in extent, where sand was used to filter water from the Potomac River by way of the Washington Aqueduct. The purification system was a slow sand filter design that became obsolete by the late 20th century. In 1985, a new rapid sand filter plant replaced it across First Street beside the reservoir. The treatment system is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Public access to the site has been restricted since World War II, when the Army erected a fence to guard against sabotage of the city's water supply.
Tower-like sand bins covered in greenery as designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
The 1905, completion of the McMillan Reservoir Sand Filtration Site was a Washington public health milestone. Its innovative system of water purification, which relied on sand rather than chemicals, led to the elimination of typhoid epidemics and the reduction of many other communicable diseases in the city.
IMG_7488
McMillan Park and Sand Filtration Site is a twenty-five acre green space and decommissioned water treatment plant in northwest Washington, D.C. Two paved courts lined by regulator houses, tower-like sand bins, sand washers and the gated entrances to the underground filter cells provided a promenade for citizens taking the air in the park.
Below grade, there are twenty catacomb-like cells, each an acre in extent, where sand was used to filter water from the Potomac River by way of the Washington Aqueduct. The purification system was a slow sand filter design that became obsolete by the late 20th century. In 1985, a new rapid sand filter plant replaced it across First Street beside the reservoir. The treatment system is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Public access to the site has been restricted since World War II, when the Army erected a fence to guard against sabotage of the city's water supply.
Tower-like sand bins covered in greenery as designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
The 1905, completion of the McMillan Reservoir Sand Filtration Site was a Washington public health milestone. Its innovative system of water purification, which relied on sand rather than chemicals, led to the elimination of typhoid epidemics and the reduction of many other communicable diseases in the city.