The Columbia City Waterworks were completed in January of 1907 to pump water from the Columbia Canal and treat it before pumping it to serve the city's residents. Before the construction of this facility, city water had been provided by a standpipe on Arsenal Hill; a steam engine was used to pump water from an underground spring to the steel holding tank, where gravity fed it through a system of cast iron pipes to households and businesses.
Courtesy of the Howard G. Woody Postcard Collection
