Dock Street Dam | |
---|---|
Official name | Dock Street Dam |
Location | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Shipoke) and Cumberland County, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 40°14′55″N76°52′43″W / 40.24861°N 76.87861°W |
Opening date | 1913 |
Dam and spillways | |
Impounds | Susquehanna River |
Height | 6 feet |
Length | 3,460 feet (1,050 m) |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Susquehanna River |
The Dock Street Dam is a low-head dam that crosses the Susquehanna River between the Shipoke neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the east shore and Lemoyne on the west shore. It is constructed of hollow, reinforced concrete buttress dam and was built to create recreational depth as a 3-mile lake, provide floor control, prevent mosquitos, and minimize odors. [1] Turbulence downstream of the dam contrasts sharply with the usually placid, lake-like river above the dam. In spite of the dam the Susquehanna is often just a few feet deep at Harrisburg. Proposals have been made to raise the height of the dam in order to enhance the river's navigability and recreational potential, although the suggestion remains controversial. [2] The present structure has been criticized as creating currents downstream that can draw small boats upstream into the dam, an effect that has been cited in at least seventeen drownings. [3] Since 1935, there have been over 30 documented fatalities because of the dam. [4] Solutions have been proposed, including the piling of stone or concrete debris south of the dam to disrupt the current, but have not been implemented.
Dock Street, which was between Hanna and Hemlock streets in the Shipoke neighborhood ran east from Front Street to Ninth Street, was eliminated when Interstate 83 and the John Harris Bridge were built.
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of 2021, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania.
Columbia, formerly Wright's Ferry, is a borough (town) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 10,222. It is 28 miles (45 km) southeast of Harrisburg, on the east (left) bank of the Susquehanna River, across from Wrightsville and York County and just south of U.S. Route 30.
Interstate 83 (I-83) is an Interstate Highway located in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the Eastern United States. Its southern terminus is at a signalized intersection with Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland; its northern terminus is at I-81 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I-83 runs from Downtown Baltimore north to I-695 near the northern suburb of Timonium on the Jones Falls Expressway before forming a concurrency with I-695. After splitting from I-695, the route follows the Baltimore–Harrisburg Expressway north to the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Upon crossing the state line, I-83 becomes the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Memorial Highway and continues north through York toward the Harrisburg area. The route runs along the southern and eastern portion of the Capital Beltway that encircles Harrisburg before reaching its northern terminus.
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