The turbine and pump you see here today have survived – almost miraculously – for more than 170 years. A collaborative effort of the Water Department's Chief Engineer, Frederic Graff, Jr., and the French engineer Emile Geyelin, this machinery efficiently lifted water to the reservoirs from 1851 until 1909. During the Aquarium years, its use to supply river water for the fresh water fish tanks proved a disaster when the fish succumbed to the polluted waters. Hidden behind a wall until the 1970s, the machinery survived.

Fairmount Waterworks
Philadelphia, PA

04.17.23