TROY – A broken water valve opened a flood of enthusiasm over the possibility the oldest cast-iron waterline in use in the nation is pumping Troy's most liquid asset around the city.

An 8-inch cast-iron pipe with the year 1803 stamped on it was unearthed during recent repair work at Sage Avenue and Eighth Street. The date would mean Troy's pipe is 22 to 27 years older than a section of pipe in downtown Boston considered the nation's oldest working cast-iron line, said Chris Wheland, Troy’s superintendent of utilities.

Wheland said Troy’s find was a startling surprise - and for people who pay attention to such things, it's a big deal.

“It’s like finding Noah’s Ark,” Wheland said Friday.

Albany Water uncovers two-century-old wood water main

Surprising, frightening things we found in the Capital Region

He explained that the valve that was replaced dated from 1874 and it was assumed that the pipes were of the same vintage.

“It could be one of the if not the oldest cast-iron pipes in the country still in service,” Wheland said.

A modern valve was installed, but the cast-iron pipe was left in the ground to continue the free flow of water into downtown.

The city has sent a photograph and other information about the pipe to the Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association in Alabama in the hope more can be learned about its origin. Cast-iron pipe wasn’t made in the U.S. until later in the 19th Century. Eventually the use of cast-iron water mains became common place, an improvement that allowed communities to replace wooden water lines by the start of the 20th Century.

Wheland is a bit of a history buff about the city water system. He speculates that the pipe is from Europe - which forged cast-iron pipes before the U.S. - and was part of a pilot project to see how such pipes would function locally. In 1815, he said, the city government passed a local law mandating the installation of cast-iron mains to replace the wooden lines that were in common use at the time.

At the time, the change over to cast iron fit the city's growing profile as a manufacturing hub and center of iron works. Cast-iron manufacturing began in Troy in 1829. It would eventually become part of the city's metal industry.

The Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association, a Birmingham-based firm that compiles engineering information about cast-iron and ductile piping, is using its contacts to try to determine the origins of the pipe. It’s checking paperwork dating back more than two centuries here and abroad, Wheland said.

If the old valve had remained in tact, Wheland said the city would have never discovered the history under the street.