Pompton dam facts for kids
The Pompton Dam is a special kind of wall built across the Pompton River in Pequannock, New Jersey. It was built in the 1920s as part of the Morris Canal system. Its main job was to help control water levels and create a calm area of water, called a backwater. This helped make the land around it more valuable.
The Pompton Dam is an important historical site. It is listed on both the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. This means it is recognized for its historical value.
What is the Pompton Dam?
The Pompton Dam is a type of dam called a spillway. It is about 250 feet (76 meters) wide. It stretches across the entire width of the Pompton River.
This dam is a "run-of-the-river" spillway. This means that when the water level is normal, water simply flows over the top of the dam. It does not store a lot of water like some other dams do. The dam is located in Aquatic Park, north of another structure called the Pequannoc Spillway.
History of the Pompton Dam
The Pompton Dam was first built a long time ago, in the early 1800s. Back then, it was made of timber, which is wood. This early dam helped boats travel along the Morris Canal for almost 100 years.
The Pompton Dam and the Pequannoc Spillway were part of a system that fed water into the Morris Canal. This system helped keep the water levels steady in parts of the Pompton River and Ramapo River. These rivers were important parts of the canal system at that time.
In the 1920s, the Morris Canal was no longer used for shipping. People were deciding what to do with its parts. An engineer named C.C. Vermeule worked for the Morris Canal. He suggested that the dam should not be removed. He believed that taking it away would turn the surrounding land into "ugly, muddy areas." This would make the land much less valuable.
Because of this, the State of New Jersey, which owned the canal, decided to keep the dam. They chose to make it stronger by rebuilding it with concrete. This new concrete dam worked just like the old timber one.
By 2011, the area behind the Pompton Dam had filled up with silt. Silt is like fine mud or sand. This made the backwater area too shallow for large boats. Now, only small boats like rowboats can use it. Also, the spillway does not work exactly as it was designed to anymore.
