Ashfork-Bainbridge Steel Dam

The Ashfork Bainbridge Steel Dam, the first large steel dam in the world, and one of only 3 ever built in the United States, was constructed in 1898 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) to supply water for railway operations near Ash Fork, Arizona. It is named for the town of Ash Fork, and for Francis H. Bainbridge, a civil engineer and graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who was an engineer for ATSF. [According to material found in this PDF: [http://www.azsce.org/downloads/history-150thAnniversaryBooklet.pdf Arizona Society of Civil Engineers 150th anniversary booklet] , Bainbridge invented the steel dam and obtained a United States patent on it, No. 537,520, filed September 11, 1894]

Background

The ATSF and other railroads had to make special provisions for water supply in desert conditions, as non condensing steam locomotives [The sort typically used in the United States, even in very arid conditions] consumed a prodigious amount of water. The usual approach was to construct a dam to retain surface water, or to drill a series of wells, and store the water in a water tank. Railroad communities often grew up around these reservoirs or water stops. Ash Fork had been such a town from when the ATSF first arrived some years earlier although it had been a way point for stagecoach lines previously.

Railroads in the US and elsewhere had been leaders in structural development. The masonry arch bridges and viaducts of the early 19th century had given way to bridges made mostly of steel, with considerable economy of material, construction cost, and time, and Bainbridge speculated that similar savings might be possible for dams. This dam was a significant departure from the more typical masonry construction. Already familiar with the construction of the ATSF's many steel bridges, Bainbridge decided to see whether steel construction could replace masonry in dams as well. The dam's light weight and prefabricated components must have made assembly easy relative to the laborious job of quarrying and setting stone.

Steel dams use relatively thin steel plates in contact with the water surface, with a framework of steel behind them transmitting the load to the ground. The plates are slanted upwards in the direction of water flow, so that the weight of the water puts compressive forces on the girders holding the plates up. This transmits force to the ground without the bending moment that a vertical wall of plates would engender. It was believed that these dams could be constructed faster and more cheaply than masonry dams.

Location

The dam lies about convert|3|mi|km to the east of Ash Fork, in Johnson Canyon, and about convert|15|mi|km west of Williams, Arizona. It is near the former U.S. Route 66 and Interstate 40. About a mile upstream lies Stone Dam, a masonry structure which was constructed 13 years later. The Grand Canyon Railway originates in Williams, branching from the ATSF main that this dam served, and runs NE to the Grand Canyon.

Construction details

The dam was fabricated by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company and shipped to the site in pieces for erection. Construction of the dam began in 1897 and was completed March 5, 1898 at a total cost of US $63,519.

The structure gets its scalloped appearance from 24 curved 3/8 inch steel plates, (alternately loose and rigid to compensate for a temperature range from convert|104|°F|°C|abbr=on to minus 4°F) that slope downstream. The central steel section is convert|184|ft|m long, convert|46|ft|m high, and weighs about 460,000 pounds. No spillway was provided, the dam instead was designed with a strength to withstand overtopping of convert|6|ft|m of water pouring directly over its crest.

It holds about 36 million gallons of water when full.

Dam history

The dam is an Arizona Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. A professional journal wrote in 1902 that Ash Fork Dam "has so many novel features of an experimental character that it is specially interesting and instructive to the engineering profession." [cited in [http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/092dams.html Holding Back the Waters - Dams as Water Resource Monuments by Joe Gelt] ]

In a survey in 1955, George Lamb [Lamb was a member of the American Institute of Steel Construction, and was cited in [http://www.azsce.org/downloads/history-150thAnniversaryBooklet.pdf] ] said "it appears to be in as good condition as if it was just built." It is still in use, unlike the other two steel dams in the United States. [Redridge Steel Dam stands empty although well preserved, and the Hauser Lake Dam in Montana failed within a year or so of construction]

The Kaibab National Forest, (part of the United States Forest Service holdings) is now the owner of the dam, after acquiring it through a land exchange. [http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/092dams.htm] .

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 with a structure ID of #76000373. [ [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/Coconino/state.html National Register of Historical Places - ARIZONA (AZ), Coconino County ] ]

Notes

Further reading

* Jackson, Donald C. Great American Bridges and Dams, John Wiley & Sons, New York (USA) , ISBN 0-471-14385-5, 1984; pp. 210-211.
* [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=yVwrv9tF8AUC&dq=%22steel+dam%22&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Flr%3D%26q%3D%2522steel%2Bdam%2522&lpg=PA301&pg=PA300&sig=ohRnSDd-sY4kxI4ShIpSQL7Ttck Irrigation and Water Power Engineering] a book found via Google books (one of few sources to mention steel dams) says there are 3 extant in the US and gives some info on each.
*REYNOLDS, T.S. (1989). "A Narrow Window of Opportunity: the Rise and Fall of the Fixed Steel Dam." Jl Soc. for Industrial Archaeology, Vol. 15, pp. 1-20.

External links

* [http://sidecanyon.com/attraction/ariza.htm Side Canyon] web site on Ash Fork with background material on the town
* [http://www.azsce.org/downloads/history-150thAnniversaryBooklet.pdf Arizona Society of Civil Engineers 150th anniversary booklet] on historic civil engineering landmarks
* [http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/092dams.html Holding Back the Waters - Dams as Water Resource Monuments by Joe Gelt] source of some of the quotes and information in this article
* [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/Coconino/state.html National Register of Historic Places] entry for the dam(in the above images, the steel dam is to the west and slightly to the south, closer to I-40, of the two dams visible. It impounds water in an elbow shape with a bend to the right. The masonry dam is upstream, farther north and east, and impounds more water in an irregular shape.)

Illustration

*The dam is shown in the [http://www.lib.rpi.edu/cgi-bin/bulletin.pl?vol=30&iss=1x&pg=78 lower illustration on this page] , taken from a RPI "works of graduates" booklet. The illustration is an in progress shot. Notation "Designed and patented by F. H. Bainbridge '94" at bottom.