Supplying water for the fountains of Versailles was a major problem for the royal government. The site of the Palace itself is above sea level, with the nearest body of water capable of supplying the gardens and court being the Seine River, north. This presented the daunting problem to Louis XIV's engineers of how to transport water uphill over such a distance. In 1681, construction commenced on the Machine de Marly at Bougival; the machine consisted of 14 paddle wheels powered by the currents of the Seine. 259 pumps carried water up to the high Louveciennes Aqueduct, which fed the water into huge reservoirs at Marly-le-Roi. At full capacity, over one million gallons of water per day could be pumped into the Marly reservoirs, but ironically by the 1690s the Château de Marly had become the main recipient, since Louis XIV built an enormous water cascade to rival the waterworks at Versailles.