Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-07-04

mn ffUST like one of the big irri.
w cation dams in the west. only
al in miniature" said one Of the
concrete workers who had
just been paid off the job away up
Cameron run. Va, where the storage
dam of the Alexandria Water Company
Is located. The newspaper man to
whom the remark was made had to
agree. II was exactly like many of the
dams behind which water is impounded
for use In the arid regions of the west:
and II wasn't such a miniature. either,
when the concrete wall was reached
Five hundred feet from end to end 1t
stretches across one of the deep ra-
vines through which the clear waters
Of Cameron run meander on their way
to the Potomac. From the foundation.
down below the bed of the stream. to
the wasteway at the top of the dam. is
seventy feet and the solid wall is built
on foundations that are sixty-fve feet
thick. They have to be thick. strong.
solid and heavy, If the wall is to he
equal to its task which is to impound
soo.o0O.oOo gallons of water.
The big dam has been nearly two
years In building, and 1t is Just COM
pleted. The water behind it reaches
almost halfway up the face of the
dam, and the engineers say the lake
contains probably half of the dams
capacity, or 900. 1000 gallons of wa
ter. That quantity. they say, would
meet the needs of Alexandria for six
months, even If not another drop OF
rain should fall In half year.
Built by a Washington firm, the big
dam is such an example of work OF its
kind as is not frequently seen east of
the Mississippi river. Many structures
of the kind are dotted all over the
west where. up in the foothills OF the
Rocky mountains, they store up the
water from melting SHOWS and from
spring rains, for use in the dry fields
be1ow-1elds that, without the stored
water, would be as unproductive as the
sands of the Sahara.
1t isn't for irrigation purposes, how
ever, that the big dam across Cameron
run has been built, but to insure a con-
tinuous supply of water for the city
of Alexandria. That such supply IS
positively assured by the dam and its
Immense storage capacity is the decla-
ration of the men who built 1t, as well
as the engineers who designed 1t and
the concern whose money PAID ior IL
nearly half a million dollars oelns
means the watershed above the dam,
and the structure itself. Business men
do not put that much money into dam
without knowing pretty well what the
money is being spent for. and that they
are going to get the worth of. the
money back, with proper interest.
The spot selected for the dam Is
short distance up Cameron run from
, the bridge where the road from Bar
I croft crosses the little creek. 1t is
about three miles from Bancroft and
about seven miles from Alexandria,
more than a mile of the pike to the
latter place. So it is that few Wash
ingtonians except those who possess
automobiles and who love to tour roads
more or less unfrequented are likely to
see the towering concrete wall behind
which is slowly accommodating and
backing up a lake which. when the
dam is full and the water flows over
the spillway, will be nearly five miles
long.
For nearly two years the quiet Vir-
ginia hills have echoed the rattle and
rumble of concrete mixers, the clatter
of dump cars spouting material into
the forms or the dull boom of dyna-
mite blasting out the bedrock beneath
the bed of the little creek for the foun-
dations. Now the work is done, and the
dam as IL stands TODAY looks as if it