WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- The year was 1915. The Lincoln Memorial was under construction, Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run and the town of Mt. Rainier, Md. was getting brand new wooden water pipes.
"A century ago, that's how people in this community got their water. Four slats of wood pushed together and wrapped on wire. It's a wooden pipe," Lyn Riggins, a spokesperson for WSSC said.
Those wooden pipes carried water for a quarter century until a larger iron pipe was put in in 1940. But the unused wooden pipes stayed underground another 75 years, before being removed Thursday.
"In 27 years this is my first time actually seeing a wooden water main," Joseph Miller with WSSC said.
"It's just really neat. You don't see wooden pipes, and to think for a minute that my water used to flow through wood, it's pretty cool," Riggins said.
Even after 100 years, some of the pipes still look practically new.
"This thing came out of the ground, intact, and it looks beautiful. It's a really clean nice piece of wood," Riggins said.
WSSC plans to turn the wooden pipe into a historical display.
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