The sewer system's origins track neatly with the rise of the "Boss" Shepherd government of the District and his famed Board of Public Works in the 1870s. Plagued by traditional problems with typhoid and congressional neglect, and tired of the embarrassing comparison to other capitals, city residents demanded modern public works and their need, given the city's rapid expansion, could no longer be ignored.
The District's first territorial government was formed in response to deteriorating urban conditions as the city struggled to accommodate enormous numbers of soldiers bivouacked there during the Civil War and the large number of African-Americans who flocked to the city after emancipation. The Shepherd government consulted with military engineers, sanitation experts, and even the famed landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, when designing their system. More than just sewer pipes, the plans of improvement extended to grading streets to a uniform level, paving sidewalks in brick, planting trees, and establishing public parks. This first, rudimentary sewer system, although built in the standard Gilded Age environment of patronage and corruption, forms the nucleus around which the modern system was built.