Union Street Dam & Bridge

Union Street Dam and Bridge. . , In 1816, the Roanoke Navigation Company constructed the Union Street Dam across the Dan River to divert water into its twenty-foot-wide canal. Located on the south side of the river, the canal enabled bateaux (long slender boats capable of carrying to 10 tons of cargo) to navigate around the falls near the point where Main Street crossed the river., The dam was probably made with wood timbers forming a hollow crib structure filled with stone. In 1883, this barrier was replaced by a more substantial structure that allowed an increased amount of water to flow into the south-side canal, which by then was doubled in width to forty feet. Another canal, to be used to power the new plants then being built by Riverside Mills along the north side of the river, received water impounded by the dam., The new ten-foot high Union Street Dam, constructed of granite slabs, bowed upstream and allowed for the free overflow of water. Just one year following construction, the structure was retrofitted with a stone fishway known as a McDonald Fish Ladder to conform to newly enacted state wildlife laws. This allowed spawning fish to continue upstream past the dam., In the nineteenth century, the new dam was called sometimes "Morotock Dam." A high bluff known as "Lover's Leap," overlooked "Morotock Lake, a favorite spot for weekend boating by Danvillians of the Victorian era. The name was borrowed from the Native Americans of the Moratoc Tribe which inhabited this area well into the eighteenth century., Union Street Bridge is the fourth thoroughfare across the river at this site. In 1883, a wooden covered bridge was constructed on stone masonry piers. ln 1911, it was replaced by a concrete arch structure using the same piers. A wider steel beam bridge was built above the earlier structure in 1934 using concrete pedestals above the original piers. In 1994, the present steel girder bridge replaced the 1934 structure with the original piers being used through reinforcement with concrete at their bases., Historical text provided by F Lawrence McFall, Jr. , Photo from Art Works of Danville, 1903 . Layout and design by Kim Demont (formerly Vaden and Associates). , A project of the City of Danville. . Plaque production sponsored by The Danville Riverview Rotary Club.