Mill River Dam fracture
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The Mill River Dam (Mill River Dam, Williamsburg Dam) was a dam in the "Williamsburg Hills" near Williamsburg in Massachusetts , USA. It failed on May 16, 1874 and caused considerable damage.
The Mill River Dam dammed the Mill River (Mill Creek), a tributary of the Connecticut River . There were many mills and factories in the industrialized valley below. The dam , built in 1865, was a rubble dam with an inner core made of masonry. He was 13.1 m tall and nine years old; the reservoir contained 379,000 m³ of water when it broke. At the time of the dam breach, the water level was about 1.2 m below the dam crest.
The cause of the dam breach was seepage water that flushed material out of the dam (“ piping ”), caused the embankment to slide and finally caused the core wall to collapse. The time is given as 7:20 a.m. ( EST ).
The Jam Master George Cheney was able to observe the spill and warn riding on a horse, the downstream residents. He covered the four kilometers to the first place in 15 minutes, which meant he was 10 minutes ahead of the tidal wave. All damage extended to the area 11 kilometers long below the dam. Four places between Williamsburg and Northampton and their factories were destroyed or affected: Haydenville, Leeds, Skinnerville and Florence. The total number of dead is given in the various sources as 138, 143, 144 or 200. 750 people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than 1 million US dollars . 43 children under the age of ten were among the victims.
It was the earliest recorded dam failure in the United States.
See also
Web links
literature
- Elizabeth M. Sharp: In the Shadow of the dam. The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874, Free Press 2004, ISBN 1-4165-7264-3