They may look like friendly little people with cone hats to some. Others find them so ugly that they build brick walls to hide them. In terms of making, installing and fixing the ubiquitous brown tanks with their cone shaped tops these two men run businesses that have been in competition for a long time.
Many times these men are shocked that in an age of computers, skyscrapers and synthetics, most New Yorkers get their water via a wooden barrel on the roof. Gentlemen who run the company with his 32 year old brother and their mother said that when he tells people the tanks are wood, they don't believe it. Some people say that those tanks look like they are made out of steel or Plexiglas.
Usually water tanks are made of steel. As a matter of fact, US steel maker's Manhattan headquarters gets water from wooden tanks. It is a wonder how long tanks actually last. This gentleman claims that it takes too long that they just replaced a tank that his father had put up in 1926.
Even if Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere you can find wooden water tanks, but only in New York, with its great density of tall apartment buildings, are they fixtures on the landscape. To be honest you can't have a skyline without the tanks. When you want water to be available you have to get the pumps to run constantly.
Rooftop tanks are more efficient. One thing you have to know as well is that electrical pumps kick in only when the water in the barrel drops below a certain level. It has to be observed that by law buildings that are 80 feet or taller must have the tanks, for firefighting reasons. Waiting for the firefighters to arrive, Water from the tank is often used to keep flames from reaching passages out of a burning building.
A tank like this has two hookups, the one for drinking water, located at mid-tank, and the one for firefighting, located at the bottom of the tank. The tanks are made from redwood or cedar staves cut to size in the factory, assembled on the roof and encircled by galvanized iron hoops.
With the hoops pressing in and the water pressing out, it makes it watertight. It is said that an average tank holds 10,000 gallons, stands 12 feet high and is mounted on a steel structure 20 feet high.
The height makes tanks work on a windy day dangerous and often impossible. Currently these tanks are made at a factory in Philadelphia, about two hours from its offices on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Here, there is one company that handles nearly all the city's water tanks.
Another thing that is talked about is whether this company is related to their competitor. Usually, they will say their started in another way bit both agree that their products are aesthetically pleasing. One the yuppie that lives on the Upper East Side, who just bought his apartment, says that he doesn't want to see a water tank when he looks outside.
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