Ok, this is totally random but kind of curious. This water tower in Sanford really may not be anything special but it kind of reminded me of the fact that I wasn’t aware of water towers before I moved to the US. So I did a little research what those towers are good for anyway. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:
A water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated water storage container constructed for the purpose of holding a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system. Pressurization occurs through the elevation of water; for every 10.20 centimetres (4.016 in) of elevation, it produces 1 kilopascal (0.145 psi) of pressure. 30 m (98.43 ft) of elevation produces roughly 300 kPa (43.511 psi), which is enough pressure to operate and provide for most domestic water pressure and distribution system requirements.
Then I googled around a bit more and found out that we actually have water towers in Germany too! I just wasn’t aware of them ever, also because they really don’t look like it. In fact, all the ones I found online look like they must have been built about 100 years ago. Anyway, here is a picture borrowed from a German guy who has made it his project to photograph water towers from all over the world! This is his water tower web site.