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THEY stand at the crest of the New York skyline like rustic, weathered sentinels. Their design has changed little in more than a century, and though they resemble a relic from a forgotten time, wooden water tanks remain a fixture of the cityscape.

And more are being built every day, because the tanks endure as a vital part of the water-supply system for many of the city’s buildings. New York is the only large American city where these structures are common; elsewhere, their numbers are dwindling.

Younger cities often rely on electric pumps to supply water to skyscrapers, but New York’s aged infrastructure, built on shallow bedrock that results in extremely low water pressure, doesn’t allow that technology. Architects outside New York may not even think of using a rooftop tank to hold a building’s water supply, and if they did, who would build it?

Two companies build water towers in New York — Isseks Brothers and the Rosenwach Tank Company — and both have been in operation for well over a century. Scott Hochhauser, vice president of Isseks Brothers, estimates that his company alone has built tens of thousands of tanks over the years and says his work crews build one to five a week, and repair and service many times that number.

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To watch the tankmen practice their craft is to witness a construction technique that has transcended time, as was evident one day not long ago when a Rosenwach crew was building a water tank on the roof of a 24-story hotel rising near the Empire State Building. Three men moved nimbly around a narrow, rail-free scaffolding almost 300 feet above the street, while two others handed up planks from the rooftop below. It took less than two hours to construct the body of the tank, setting vertical boards in place using only a hammer and a rope.