builder, at the close of the year, street approaches to three or four thousand
more lots than were approachable for building at beginning.
While the Street Department thus furnished means of getting access to unoccupied lots, the Water and Sewerage Department was not idle in rendering house property more valuable, by adding to the first necessity of streets, the scarcely less necessary elements of a water supply and drainage. In the year 1867, sixteen miles of water pipes were laid and fourteen miles of sewers. At the commencement of 1868, therefore, there existed in the city 210 miles of water pipe, and 134 miles of sewers. The total street length of Brooklyn is about 500 miles. Of this only about one-half is at all occupied as yet by houses and population. Much of it exists in the form of water and swamp lots, which will probably for many years yet remain unbuilt upon. In 1868, there were fourteen miles of water pipe laid and sixteen of sewers—a reversal of the figures of the former year. On the first of January, 1869, there were 150 miles of sewer and 224 of water pipes lying beneath the street surface of Brooklyn. Especially in the sixteenth ward has the sewerage been largely and efficiently prosecuted.
