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City Ditch

This is the only above-ground remnant of a 26-mile, hand-dug, gravity-fed irrigation ditch that carried South Platte River water from Chatfield Reservoir (39.547129, -105.070034) north into Englewood and Denver. It is named after businessman John W. Smith, who completed the project in 1867. By the end of the 19th century, most of the canal had been placed in pipes. The ditch was severed at the Franklin Street bridge in 2001 when I-25 was widened (39.687529, -104.968765), and since 2004 the northern portion through Washington Park and City Park has been fed with recycled wastewater from the Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility in North Denver (39.808260, -104.956128).

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