Opened in 1915, the Colonel Francis G. Ward Pumping Station was built to pump water from Lake Erie to the city of Buffalo, NY. Each of the five 60-foot tall steam engines had 2 flywheels 20 feet in diameter weighing 30 tons apiece and could move 30 million gallons per day. Customers paying their water bills walked along the balcony to the payment offices past the engines which remained operational into the 1970s and were replaced by electric pumps.The building was closed to the public during World War II for security reasons and remains so to this day.
