Meet Jenny and Sean from Poughkeepsie, NY

They have been together for 20 years. Sean works for the Department of Environmental Conservation. He is currently working on the Roundout Aqueduct. Have you ever wondered about the magic of New York City water? How does one of the world’s largest city’s, built on a pice of land that does not have access to fresh water, provide pristine fresh water to roughly 9 million people? Today Sean taught Betsy all about it! In 1842 (the same year the cave was discovered! It was a great year!) the first Upsate New York aqueduct started to provide water to parts of lower Manhattan. The NYC Aqueduct system is one of the most comprehensive and impressive, being the longest underground tunnel system in the world! It brings over a half a billion gallons of pristine, protected water from the Catskill Mountains to NYC- roughly 125 miles. Sean works underground most days. Betsy joked that with Sean that he must feel out of sorts being above ground. Today, he was in his element, heading back underground, on his day off, with his beautiful wife. That being said, I asked Jenny how she copes with him being in tunnel systems underground and not having the ability to contact him. (there are no cell towers underground so cell phone communication isn’t used- just like here at the cave) Jenny said after all these years she has gotten used to it. She tries not to think about it. She also says that he’s more above ground than underground than he used to be, so that’s a relief. The one thing they want to tell the world is, “You have to make the best of each day, no one is going to do that for you.” Jenny and Sean, thank you so much for taking the time to teach us a bit about the aqueduct system and for visiting!