Muscoot Reservoir

The Muscoot Reservoir is a reservoir in the New York City water supply system in northern Westchester County, New York, located directly north of the village of Katonah. Part of the system's Croton Watershed, it is 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of the City. It was constructed at the beginning of the 19th century by impounding the Muscoot River, a tributary of the Croton River, in turn a tributary of the Hudson River.

Muscoot Reservoir
Muscoot Reservoir
Muscoot Reservoir cuts across this 2013 aerial photograph from lower left to center and upper right. At center left is Amawalk Reservoir (which drains into Muscoot Reservoir) at upper right is Lake Mahopac. Mount Kisco, New York is at bottom center and near center right are Katonah, New York and Interstate 684.
Location	Westchester County, New York
Coordinates	41.2694°N 73.7070°W / 41.2694; -73.7070
Type	reservoir
Catchment area	76 sq mi (200 km2)
Basin countries	United States
Surface area	1,263 acres (511 ha)[1]
Max. depth	30 ft (9.1 m)[1]
Shore length1	30.5 mi (49.1 km)[1]
Surface elevation	200 ft (61 m)[1]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The reservoir was once much smaller, but the other side of the original dam was intentionally flooded to make the reservoir bigger, when a new dam was built downstream. The original dam is still standing, and divides the reservoir in two.

During construction, the New York Central Railroad moved Bridge L-158 from the Rondout Creek near Kingston to carry its Mahopac Branch across a section of the reservoir near Goldens Bridge. It remains today even though service on the branch ended in 1960. In 1978 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the only remaining double-intersection Whipple truss railroad bridge in the state.

The reservoir was completed in 1905[2] and serves as the main collecting point for all the reservoirs in the Croton Watershed (except for the New Croton Reservoir, which later receives its water). It is almost 8 miles (almost 13 km) long, can hold up to 4.9 billion US gallons (19,000,000 m³) of water at full capacity, and has a 76 square mile (121.6 km²) drainage basin.[2]

Water from the Muscoot Reservoir flows down the balance of the Muscoot River, then enters the Croton River to flow into the New Croton Reservoir. From there it enters the New Croton Aqueduct and flows south into the Jerome Park Reservoir in The Bronx.[2] It continues on to Manhattan, where it mixes with water from the Catskill Aqueduct, into Brooklyn, then ends in Staten Island at the aqueduct's termination.

Fish species found in the river include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, brown bullhead, common carp, black crappie, yellow perch, chain pickerel, sunfish, brown trout, and rainbow trout.[1]