Wachusett Aqueduct Linear District

This twelve-mile aqueduct carried water from the Nashua River area at Clinton southeast to Sudbury Reservoir in Southborough. Built in 1896-98, it combines two miles of tunnel, seven miles of masonry conduit and three miles of open channel, with four chambers, an aqueduct bridge, six vehicular bridges and three small dams. Notable structures include the seven-arch, granite-faced Assabet River Bridge in Northborough and small granite-faced concrete arch bridges over the open channel. Designs came from the office of Chief Engineer Frederic P. Stearns, and several contractors built the work. It was the first project of the Metropolitan Water Board, created in 1895, and it supplemented the Sudbury reservoirs. After the Wachusett Reservoir opened in 1906-07, it conveyed the Boston area's principal supply until the Quabbin Reservoir was completed in the 1940s. The aqueduct was taken out of service when the Wachusett-Marlborough Tunnel bypassed it in the mid-1960s.