Unknown to residents at the time, the lack of a safe water supply presented a significant health risk to the city. After the arrival of the
second cholera pandemic in the United States (1832), Louisville in the 1830s and 40s gained the nickname "graveyard of the west", due to the polluted local water giving Louisville residents
cholera and
typhoid at epidemic levels. This was because residents used the water of tainted private wells, but the linkage was not discovered until 1854 by the English physician
John Snow, and not accepted as fact until decades later. Due to the water project's completion in 1866, Louisville was free of cholera during the epidemic of 1873. After several devastating fires in the 1850s, Louisvillians were convinced of the importance of the project. The decision was made by the
Kentucky Legislature to form the
Louisville Water Company on March 6, 1854. Private investors showed little interest and so after only 55 shares had been sold and the failure of a first attempt to secure voter approval to buy shares, the project was widely promoted. In 1856 voters approved purchase of 5500 shares in 1856, and another 2200 shares in 1859, transforming it into an almost completely
government-owned corporation. The inspiration for the architecture of Louisville's Water Tower came from the French architect
Claude Nicolas Ledoux, who merged "architectural beauty with industrial efficiency". Even the reservoir's
gatehouse on the riverfront invoked the castles along the
Rhine. The water tower began operations on October 16, 1860. The tower was not just pretty; it was effective. In 24 hours the station could produce 12 million US gallons (45,000 m3) of water. This water, in turn, flowed through 26 miles (42 km) of pipe. A
tornado on
March 27, 1890 irreparably changed the Water Tower. The original water tower had an iron pipe protected by a wood-paneled shaft, but after the tornado destroyed it, it was replaced with
cast iron. The tornado also destroyed all but two of the ten statues that were on the pedestals. Shortly thereafter, a new pumping station and
reservoirs were built in
Crescent Hill, and the original water tower ceased pumping operations in 1909. The pumping station was renovated in 2010. ==Statues==