Q. Where did New Yorkers get their water before the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842?

A. From a number of different sources, none of them particularly pleasant. But this history does include a colorful story involving Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and the origins of a multinational financial institution.

Dutch settlers used shallow wells and cisterns, which often proved inadequate; in fact, a lack of drinking water hastened New Amsterdam’s fall to the English in 1664.

The English deepened these wells, but they became easily tainted as the city grew. (One of the most popular wells collected rainwater that had run through the graveyard outside Trinity Church.) Natural springs like Collect Pond attracted industrial buildings like tanneries and slaughterhouses, which quickly turned these water sources into open sewers.

A severe epidemic of yellow fever in 1798, blamed on the repugnant water, pushed the city to find a longer-term solution. It saw potential in the unsullied Bronx River, more than 10 miles to the north. At the same time, a state legislator named Aaron Burr saw a different type of potential in the crisis.