Varney's Falls Dam

Last updated
Varney's Falls Dam
JR&KC towpath above Varney's Falls.jpg
Towpath near the culvert abutment
USA Virginia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location1 mi. E of jct. of VA 608 and VA 609 on the James River, near Gilmore Mills, Virginia
Coordinates 37°34′52″N79°35′50″W / 37.58111°N 79.59722°W / 37.58111; -79.59722 Coordinates: 37°34′52″N79°35′50″W / 37.58111°N 79.59722°W / 37.58111; -79.59722
Area61 acres (25 ha)
Built1851 (1851)
Built byScott, Charles
Architectural styleStone lock
NRHP reference # 93001127 [1]
VLR #011-0068
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 14, 1993
Designated VLRAugust 18, 1993 [2]

Varney's Falls Dam is a historic lock and dam structure located on the James River near Gilmore Mills, Botetourt County, Virginia. It was built in 1851, and is a massive limestone structure. The lock chamber measures 100 feet long between gate recesses, 15 feet wide, and approximately 21 feet from the top on the upriver end to ground level. Associated with the lock are the lock and dam abutment structures, the remaining towpaths, canal bed, berm bank, towpath culvert and remnants of a towpath bridge. The dam was destroyed in 1881, and the lock gates removed in 1885. [3]

Dam A barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface or underground streams

A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, dating to 3,000 BC.

James River river in Virginia, United States

The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows 348 miles (560 km) to Chesapeake Bay. The river length extends to 444 miles (715 km) if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. It is the longest river in Virginia and the 12th longest river in the United States that remains entirely within a single state. Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia’s first colonial capitals, and Richmond, Virginia's current capital, lie on the James River.

Gilmore Mills, Virginia Unincorporated community in Virginia, United States

Gilmore Mills is an unincorporated community in Rockbridge County, Virginia, United States. Gilmore Mills is located on the James River 5.3 miles (8.5 km) west-southwest of Glasgow.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. It is part of the James River and Kanawha Canal Historic District. [1]

National Register of Historic Places Federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

James River and Kanawha Canal United States historic place

The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for a rail line following the same course.

Related Research Articles

Illinois and Michigan Canal United States historic place

The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran 96 miles (154 km) from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Portage, and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before the railroad era. It was opened in 1848. Its function was largely replaced by the wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900, and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of the Illinois Waterway in 1933.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal canal in Washington, D.C. and Maryland

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland. The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains.

Hertford Union Canal Canal in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The Hertford Union Canal or Duckett's Cut is just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It connects the Regent's Canal to the Lee Navigation. It was opened in 1830 but quickly proved to be a commercial failure. It was acquired by the Regents Canal Company in 1857, and became part of the Grand Union Canal in 1927.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park National Historical Park located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and many of its original structures. The canal and towpath trail extends along the Potomac River from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland, a distance of 184.5 miles (296.9 km). In 2013, the path was designated as the first section of U.S. Bicycle Route 50.

Patowmack Canal United States historic place

The Patowmack Canal is a series of five inoperative canals located in Maryland and Virginia, United States, that was designed to bypass rapids in the Potomac River upstream of the present Washington, D.C. area. The most well known of them is the Great Falls skirting canal, whose remains are managed by the National Park Service as it is within Great Falls Park Virginia, an integral part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Ohio and Erie Canal United States historic place

The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania.

Delaware and Hudson Canal United States historic place

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson River and thence to market in New York City.

United States National Register of Historic Places listings

The National Register of Historic Places in the United States is a register including buildings, sites, structures, districts, and objects. The Register automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the U.S. National Park Service. Since its introduction in 1966, more than 90,000 separate listings have been added to the register.

Locks on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

The Locks on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, located in Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. of the United States, were of three types: lift locks; river locks; and guard, or inlet, locks.

Lock and Dam No. 14 dam in Hampton, Rock Island County, Illinois / LeClaire Township, Scott County, Iowa, near LeClaire, Iowa, USA

Lock and Dam No. 14 is a lock and dam located near LeClaire, Iowa on the Upper Mississippi River above Davenport, Iowa and Moline, Illinois. The movable portion of the dam is 1,343 feet (409.3 m) long and consists of 13 tainter gates and 4 roller gates. Connected to it is a 1,127 feet (343.5 m) long non-submersible rock fill dike which extends to the Illinois side. The main lock is 110 feet (33.5 m) wide by 600 feet (182.9 m) long. The site on the National Register of Historic Places as the Lock and Dam No. 14 Historic District (#04000174) listed in 2004 consisting of 3,043 acres (12.3 km2), 1 building, 6 structures, and 2 objects. It was completed in two phases, the first as part of the six foot channel project from 1921 to 1924, which included a lock and canal bypassing a hazardous rapids. The second phase was part of the nine foot channel project from 1935 to 1939 and included the main dam and the current main lock.

Lock and Dam No. 15 dam in Rock Island, Illinois / Davenport, Iowa

Lock and Dam No. 15 is a lock and dam located on the Upper Mississippi River. It spans the river between Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Lock and Dam 15 is the largest roller dam in the world, its dam is 1,203 feet (366.7 m) long and consists of nine 109 feet (33.2 m) non-submersible, non-overflow roller gates and two 109 feet (33.2 m) non-submersible overflow roller gates. It is unusual among the upper Mississippi River dams in that it has only roller gates, has different sizes and types of roller gates, it is not perpendicular to the flow of the river and is one of the few facilities that has a completed auxiliary lock. The main lock is 110 feet (33.5 m) wide by 600 feet (180 m) long and its auxiliary lock is 110 feet (34 m) wide by 360 feet (110 m) long. In 2004, the facility was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as Lock and Dam No. 15 Historic District, #04000175 covering 3,590 acres (1,450 ha), 2 buildings, 9 structures, and 1 object.

Lock and Dam No. 19 dam in Hamilton, Illinois / Keokuk, Iowa

Lock and Dam No. 19 is a lock and dam located on the Upper Mississippi River near Keokuk, Iowa. In 2004, the facility was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as Lock and Dam No. 19 Historic District, #04000179 covering 1,605 acres (650 ha), 7 buildings, 12 structures, 1 object. The lock is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The dam is owned and operated by Ameren Missouri.

Lock and Dam No. 20 dam in Lima Township, Adams County, Illinois / Canton Township, Lewis County, Missouri, near Canton, Missouri

Lock and Dam No. 20 is a lock and dam located on the Upper Mississippi River, about one mile upstream from Canton, Missouri.

Lehigh Canal United States historic place

The Lehigh Canal or the Lehigh Navigation Canal is a navigable canal, beginning at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in Eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton, Pennsylvania and the town of Mauch Chunk, present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. In Easton the canal met the Delaware and Morris Canals, with which goods could be brought further up the east coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.

Vischer Ferry, New York hamlet in New York, United States

Vischer Ferry is a hamlet in the town of Clifton Park in Saratoga County, New York, United States, along the Mohawk River.

Pennsylvania Canal Guard Lock and Feeder Dam, Raystown Branch United States historic place

Pennsylvania Canal Guard Lock and Feeder Dam, Raystown Branch, also known as the Raystown Branch Feeder Canal, is a historic canal structure located at Henderson Township in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The property includes the remains of a guard lock and feeder dam. The guard lock was built in 1831, and the remains consist of two 90-foot long parallel walls, 8-feet high and 15-feet apart. The remains of the feeder dam consist of stone and earth remnants of a dam that once stretched across the Juniata River. The lock and dam were built to allow boats built on Standing Stone Creek to enter the Pennsylvania Canal. The lock and dam were abandoned with the rest of the Pennsylvania Canal in the 1870s.

Salmon Falls Dam dam in Twin Falls County, Idaho

Salmon Falls Dam is a dam constructed across Salmon Falls Creek in Twin Falls County, Idaho, in the United States. Located about 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Twin Falls, the masonry arch-gravity dam is 217 feet (66 m) high and 450 feet (140 m) long, impounding up to 230,650 acre feet (0.28450 km3) of water in Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir. When full, the reservoir extends for 17 miles (27 km) upstream, encompassing 3,400 acres (1,400 ha). The dam and reservoir control runoff from a drainage basin of 1,610 sq mi (4,200 km2).

Lock-Keepers House United States historic place

Lock-Keeper's House is a historic home located near Cedar Point, Goochland County, Virginia. It was built about 1836, and is a two-story frame structure resting on a stone foundation of whitewashed, rough-faced, uncoursed ashlar. It has a shallow gable roof and a shed roof porch that extends the length of the building. It was built to serve Lock Number 7 at Cedar Point and is the last remaining lock-keeper's house of the James River and Kanawha Canal system. It addition to being a residence, the lock-keeper's house served as a tavern and furnished accommodations for passengers and canal boat crews.

Georges River Canal United States historic place

The Georges River Canal, also known as the General Knox Canal was a short-lived canal that operated on and near the course of the Saint George River in Knox and Waldo Counties in south-central Maine. First owned and operated by American Revolutionary War General Henry Knox between 1794 and 1806, it was briefly revived in 1847-50, but was not financially successful. It provided for transport of goods from near the river's headwaters in Searsmont to the head of navigation at Warren. A few elements of the canal survive today, and its route was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-05-12.
  3. Dianne Pearce (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Varney's Falls Dam" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo