Croton Reservoir, Westchester County, New York.
High-voltage transmission lines cross the Croton Reservoir, part of the historic water supply system that helped make New York City’s enormous growth possible.
Just south of the picture’s frame stands the former Putnam Railroad bridge, now a pedestrian crossing over the reservoir. A ghost bridge from another era.
Water is essential to all life. Both water and electricity are essential to modern civilization. However, the water here is natural, but the reservoir is man-made. A river dammed, a valley flooded, a landscape transformed to serve a growing city. Sometimes the relationship between water and electricity is more direct, as at hydroelectric dams, where water is used to generate power. Not here.
Nature and industrial engineering mix outside the great city, in Westchester County, with passing time held in a single frame by a thirty-minute exposure.
One supplies the taps. The other powers the city. Neither gets much attention until it stops working. But when the machinery that makes it all possible becomes part of the landscape, it does get our attention. Or at least mine.