The Broad Brook Canal is a water-supply

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

feeding the Springfield Reservoir (a.k.a. the Ludlow Reservoir) in

Ludlow, Massachusetts Ludlow is a New England town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,002 as of the 2020 census, and it is considered part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located just northeast of Springfield ...

, a public water supply for the city of

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

. Its northern segment is also known as the Jabish Canal. The canal was first constructed circa 1875. It was in length, and fed the Springfield Reservoir at its eastern side with water collected in the Belchertown Reservoir and swamp. This water, however, was thought to be of poor quality, and thus in 1890–1891 the canal was extended north through the Belchertown Reservoir to Jabish Brook, east of Broad Brook. After this addition, the canal's total length was about , of which ran through a cast-iron pipe (54 inches in diameter) across the Cherry Valley dam. The entire canal was worked to be wide at the surface, wide at the bottom, with a depth of .

References

* Springfield (Massachusetts) Board of Water Commissioners, ''Report'' for the year ending Dec. 31, 1875, page 61. * Moses Nelson Baker, ''The Manual of American Water-works'', New York : Engineering News Publishing Company, 1891, page 41. * Massachusetts Department of Public Health, ''Examinations by the State Board of Health of the Water Supplies and Inland Waters of Massachusetts'', Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1890, page 297. {{Massachusetts canals and reservoirs Bodies of water of Hampden County, Massachusetts Canals in Massachusetts Canals opened in 1875 Transportation buildings and structures in Hampden County, Massachusetts