Back-yard and privies in terribly filthy condition, Providence, Rhode Island. Lewis W. Hines. Library of Congress. https://lccn.loc.gov/2004660090
Sanitation did not grow hand-in-hand with rapid urbanization in the 19th century. Privies, basically lined pits in the ground, often occupied the backyards of urban dwellings that were not directly on tunning water like a river. As they got full of waste, nightsoil men emptied them, not just of human waste, but trash too. Archaeologists struck, um, gold, when the Central Artery Project, the Big Dig, meant land occupied at one time by a brothel on Endicott Street, would be disturbed. Volunteer scientists dug up the privy and brought over 8,000 metal, ceramic and glass objects into the light. As for the domestic and industrial waste dumped directly into the rivers? For the longest time, common knowledge held that running water was the best way to deal with noxious materials. It wasn’t until the late 1800s and early 1900s that sewers and sewage treatment became common. Today, old cities in Massachusetts are still working on these processes, separating the storm water systems from the sanitary systems, a design that allows untreated sewage to be dumped directly into the rivers during storms.