As a historian myself in New England I found this so interesting. It is also so heartbreaking to see that little white house lose its battle with the mighty River. The video of it falling however almost entirely in one piece is a testament to how well it was built and how hard it fought back. My condolences to the family who lost it and the community.

There were 7 spillway gates when the dam was built in 1910, but at some point 2 of them were sealed off with concrete. This cut the maximum flow of the dam by 29% and guaranteed eventual failure. Back in 1910 they designed and built a great dam by hand in only 1 year, but today with all our technology and machinery it would take several years to the same job and probably not last half as long. Wake up America!

I have a little more history to share. My families history in that area. Silas Kenworthy started it all in that area with a grist mill. Silas's grandson Roy E Mendenhall worked in the construction of the Dam. The Mendenhall's house is across from the Dam store past the park. Silas Kenworthy's house is further back. Closer to where the grist mill used to be on the river. After contruction was completed Roy was employed at the Dam. On the 23rd of Nov. 1911 Roy was down in the dam sweeping up. Some how he was electrocuted and died 20 minutes or so after he was found. Roy was 23 married and had a small child. I'm praying that the Dam holds and Roy's legacy remains. The Dam store was owned for a time by George and Fern (Mendenhall) Eldredge. They lived upstairs. My Uncle spent his summers there and after a family reunion we all visited the Dam store. He proclaimed that the food, especially the pie was way better now than the old days!

It's lovely to be all nostalgic about the dam but it either needs to be entirely removed and replaced, or just removed. Otherwise the banks will continue to erode.

About 45 years ago I helped build a novel hydroelectric plant up in Yosemite National Park! Novel because we reuse the same water! There was a lake at 11000 ft and another lake at 5500. The water ran down in the daytime to spin the turbines, at night it was pumped back up with the unused energy out of the fossil fuel plants! You can't shut them off at night, they create electricity and nobody's using it! Far as I know it is still operational today!!

1 year construction. Never build a Rapid Dam. They don't come with emergency spillways or debris catching log booms.

When it was built it had more spillways that would have been enough to prevent this. Some time after it was built two of them were blocked and in the end THAT caused this

So much old infrastructure from nuclear power, dams, bridges, etc., that need replacing vs bandaid fixing.

They will leave a 50-75 ft section up, demo and remove the rest, place a plaque and some park benches like they normally do…

Jessica, can you give us the whole dam story?

Great presentation ladies, very interesting...thanks

Thanks for sharing.

Great historical information. It is important to know what that structure meant to the surrounding area when it was built! TY!

0:48

Looks like the actual dam did not fail. The driftwood slowed the water flow.

How one day later changes everything... They'll be lucky if they don't lose the store too.

This is a good example of government doing nothing till it's way to late to do anything

I can understand the historical value of the Dam but it's time to replenish our infrastructure. That woman is delusional

It's history now😂😂😂

Rapidan Lake is about done.