Water from wells and tunnels in the surrounding mountains was soon exhausted. It became imperative to look toward the main range of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where there was an inexhaustible supply. Between the Sierra and the Virginia ranges lay the Washoe Valley, a great trough nearly in depth. Hermann Schussler, a Swiss-trained engineer of great repute who had planned waterworks in San Francisco, was brought to the Comstock to plan and design the new works. Surveys were made in 1872, and the first sections of pipe laid June 11, 1873 and the last on July 25 the same year.