You walk and ride over them constantly—but have you ever stopped to read the inscriptions on city manhole covers? Some are pretty unique.
Like this one that reads “Croton Aqueduct DPT 1862.” It’s in Jefferson Park on First Avenue and 112th Street and refers to the engineering marvel that brought fresh water from upstate to Manhattan.
The water was stored in a massive reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, where the New York Public Library is today.
This next cover is a bit of a mystery. It seems to read “Sewer B of B” for borough of Brooklyn or borough of the Bronx. Except I found it in Harlem near 125th Street.
Another personalized manhole cover is in West Chelsea, marking the lovely General Theological Seminary on Tenth Avenue.
Tags: Con Ed, Croton Aqueduct, Croton reservoir, East Harlem, Jefferson Park, Manhole covers in New York City, New York Public Library
Ephemeral New York 
April 7, 2010 at 10:54 am |
I never did find one marked “first base”…
April 7, 2010 at 12:39 pm |
Interesting that the Sewer *B* cover has a honeycomb pattern on it.
April 8, 2010 at 10:19 am |
Some of these covers carry a message from another world? This one found in Soho seems to imply some otherworldly or at the very least a paranormal message. I wonder if it may simply be another example of the artiness of the area showing through in here.
April 8, 2010 at 11:57 am |
Paul – the one you linked to is indeed art, by Lawrence Weiner. There are others too – there are several right by Union Square and there are more as well. See http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/00/weiner_f00.html for more info.
April 8, 2010 at 1:53 pm |
I’ll have to look for those around Union Square and Soho. Very cool.
April 15, 2010 at 6:48 pm |
[…] that same vein, Ephemeral New York actually “drainspotted” in NYC, scoring photos of some interesting manhole covers that […]
August 20, 2010 at 2:58 am |
[…] Here are more city manhole covers. […]
October 7, 2017 at 5:28 pm |
I think it’s a traffic instruction for cars to form clear lanes.
April 27, 2020 at 4:38 am |
[…] unless it was removed recently (and that’s certainly possible), an almost identical cover, also dated 1862, lies underfoot in East Harlem’s Thomas Jefferson Park, at First Avenue and 112th […]
April 27, 2020 at 9:49 am |
[…] unless it was removed recently (and that’s certainly possible), an almost identical cover, also dated 1862, lies underfoot in East Harlem’s Thomas Jefferson Park, at First Avenue and 112th […]
June 20, 2020 at 6:03 am |
The manhole cover in TJ Park (at 112th) is actually dated 1866 not 1862. The one shown above is from another location.