This included a 3,994-foot-long tunnel through the watershed basin divide, and an ingenious inverted siphon pipe to get water through Washoe Valley.

The Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company Marlette flume location is now a trail for mountain biking and hiking.

The collection portion of the water system is now located inside Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park.

Civil engineer Hermann Schussler was hired in 1871 as a consultant by the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company to design a pipeline to carry water from the east slope of the Carson Range to a ridge above the town of Gold Hill, approximately 7 miles.

Virginia City was the biggest high-grade silver and gold ore producer of the United States in the mid-1800s.