Dangerous work using mule, ox, and steam power built a water system in which 288 workers died and 8,839 were injured. More than 100 years later, the NYC reservoir system still provides water for the Big Apple. The Schoharie and Ashokan reservoirs are connected by the 18-mile-long Shandaken Tunnel, built in 1924, and their flows join at The Portal before passing through an aqueduct that provides for 9 million people in the NY metropolitan area. The Ashokan Reservoir and the aqueduct to NYC were built in about 10 years, while a replacement aqueduct has remained under construction for more than 50 years and is still unfinished. When the Ashokan filled in 1914, it was the largest man-made reservoir in the world, but its creation came amid great controversy: Olive City, Brown Station, Brodhead, Olive Branch, and Ashton disappeared forever; the villages of Shokan, West Shokan, Glenford, Hurley, and Boiceville were relocated; and 32 cemeteries and 2,000 people had to pull up their roots.