The Elyton Land Company, which founded the city of Birmingham in 1871, established the Birmingham Water Works Company in 1887 and, under Dr. Henry M. Caldwell, contracted with Birmingham mayor Judge A. O. Lane to supply the new city with not less than five million gallons of water a day, a necessity for the city’s growth. The Cahaba Pumping Station was initially completed in 1890 under the supervision of W. A. Merkel at a cost of $500,000. In this remote area, machinery had to be pulled nine miles over Red Mountain and Shades Mountain by a yoke of six oxen because there were no roads. Coal for the steam pumps was mined on site, brick for the buildings was fired there, and employee housing stood on what is now Cahaba Heights Road. In the mid 1950’s, the boilers were converted from coal to natural gas and then to electricity in 1964. The facility became the nucleus of the New Merkel Community, now known as Cahaba Heights.