Power Plant and Dam No. 5 - Falling Waters, West Virginia
Posted by: 
flyingmoose
N 39° 36.367 W 077° 55.384
18S E 249039 N 4388124
A historic Dam along the Potomac River.
Waymark Code: WM1852D
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 06/01/2023
Views: 1
Power Plant and Dam No. 5 is a dam on the Potomac River that was built for the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal. A power plant was added soon after by Edward Colston using it first as a mill and then a power plant. It is best accessed from the Maryland side of the river as there is ample parking, overlook, and other historical sites to visit to include the C&O Canal
History from Wikipedia (
visit link)
The dam was originally built to retain water for the C&O Canal in 1835. It was modified in 1993, and is 20 feet (6.1 m) tall, retaining 490 acres (200 ha) of reservoir. The 1835 dam was constructed of wood cribbing, and was attacked by Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson in December 1861 with the aim of destroying the dam, depriving the upper C&O Canal of water and consequently cutting off coal shipments to Washington, D.C. Two assaults by Jackson's forces failed to cause significant damage to the dam. The dam was later replaced with a stone structure, which has been upgraded with concrete.
The power plant is a two-story brick building on the West Virginia side of the river. It was built circa 1900 as the Honeywood paper mill. The first Honeywood Mill was built at the same time as the dam, in 1835 by Edward Colston. It burned a few years later and was replaced, then burned in the Civil War. The power plant is operated by FirstEnergy with a total installed capacity of 1210 kilowatts.