Delacorte Fountain

In July 1967, George T. Delacorte Jr., the founder of Dell Publishing, announced that he would be paying for the construction and maintenance of a fountain modeled after the Jet d'Eau in Geneva, Switzerland.

[2] The firm then turned to the Worthington Pump Company in Newark, New Jersey, to design a fountain capable of shooting up a jet of water 400 to 600 feet (120 to 180 m) into the air.

An editorial written by The New York Times called the fountain an "extravagant exercise in esthetic juvenilia," saying that "it is tragic to see $300,000 literally go down the drain" instead of being used to fund other things that could be used by people such as parks, plazas and playgrounds.

At that time, the area of the river had discharges of raw sewage and was found to contain 160,000 coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters (a level of 2,400 was considered to be safe for bathing).

[9] The fountain was supposed to go into permanent operation after its dedication, but joints in the chlorinating system that were being dislodged by tidal flows, waves, and ice chunks along with a cut in an electrical feeder cable resulted in a seven-month delay.

[8] The Delacorte Geyser was listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest fountain, capable of attaining a height of 600 feet (180 m).

[20] The fountain's water intake valve became clogged multiple times due to all kinds of flotsam from the East River, which included a total of 11 drowned bodies.

[20][23] In 1985, residents of the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan donated over 50 cedar and pine trees that were planted at the southern tip of the Roosevelt Island to beautify their views of the East River.

After repairs were made to fix a corroded electrical feeder cable, a key valve failed when the fountain was turned on.

[30] The fountain was built by the Vacar Construction Company and had its equipment housed in an A-frame building that was capable of supporting the full weight of the falling column of water and fabricated from stainless steel to resist corrosion.

[2][8] The fountain was automatically shut down when winds exceeded 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) to avoid spraying the shores of the East River in Manhattan or Queens.