Bedford Hydropower Project
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Bedford Hydropower Project
The Bedford Hydropower Project (Snowden) is a hydroelectric generation facility on the James River near the community of Big Island, Virginia. The project includes a low head structure completely spanning the river; river flow is split into a concrete canal leading to the hydroelectric generation facility and the natural river course. Dam and hydroelectric plant are located approximately one mile downstream of the larger Cushaw Hydroelectric Project; the address of the project is 7443 Elon Road (Virginia Route 130), Big Island, Virginia. This dam is the middle of three dams in rapid succession; the Big Island Dam is located several miles downstream. The project consists of a canal along the left bank of the river leading to the buttressed power plant structure and an adjacent run of the river bypass of natural riverbed past the low head dam. A public fishing area is located at the Project upstream of the canal headgates; a canoe portage is also provided. The project is operated b ...
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Bedford County, Virginia
Bedford County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, which was an independent city from 1968 until rejoining the county in 2013. Bedford County was created in 1753 from parts of Lunenburg County, and several changes in alignment were made until the present borders were established in 1786. The county was named in honor of John Russell, an English statesman and fourth Duke of Bedford. Bedford County is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, Bedford's population was 79,462. The county population has more than doubled since 1980. History The Piedmont area had long been inhabited by indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, mostly Siouan-speaking tribes lived in this area. Bedford County was established by European Americans on December 13, 1753 from parts of Lunenburg County. Later in 1756, a portion of Albemarle County lying s ...
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Amherst County, Virginia
Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also named Amherst. Amherst County was created in 1761 out of Albemarle County, and it was named in honor of Lord Jeffery Amherst, the so-called "Conqueror of Canada". In 1807 as population increased, the county was reduced in size in order to form Nelson County. Tobacco was the major cash crop of the county during its early years. The labor-intensive crop was worked and processed by enslaved Africans and African Americans before the American Civil War. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 31,307. History Beginning thousands of years in the past, Native Americans were the first humans to populate the area. They hunted and fished mainly along the countless rivers and streams in the county. With the establishment of the Virginia ...
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Bedford, Virginia
Bedford is an incorporated town and former Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city located within Bedford County, Virginia, Bedford County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It serves as the county seat of Bedford County. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 6,657. It is part of the Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynchburg Lynchburg metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Known as the "place that sells itself," Bedford boasts the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north, Smith Mountain Lake to the south, Lynchburg to the east, and Roanoke, Virginia, Roanoke to the west. History Bedford was originally known as Liberty, "named after the Colonial victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown." Founded as a village in 1782, Liberty became Bedford County's seat of government, replacing New London, Virginia, New London which had become part of the newly formed Campbell County, Virginia, Campbell County. Liberty became a town in 1839 and in 1890 changed its ...
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James River
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapeake Bay. The river length extends to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. It is the longest river in Virginia. Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia's first colonial capitals, and Richmond, Virginia's current capital, lie on the James River. History The Native Americans who populated the area east of the Fall Line in the late 16th and early 17th centuries called the James River the Powhatan River, named for the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy which extended over most of the Tidewater region of Virginia. The Jamestown colonists who arrived in 1607 named it "James" after King James I of England (), as they constructed the first permanent English settlement in the Americas at Jamestown along t ...
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Big Island, Virginia
Big Island is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Bedford County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2020 United States census was 300. The CDP is located along the James River and U.S. Route 501, between Glasgow and Coleman Falls. It is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The area is named for a large, uninhabited island in the river upstream from the community. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.830 square miles (2.15 km²). Demographics 2020 census As of the census of 2020, there were 300 people residing in the CDP. There were 153 housing units. The racial makeup of the CDP was 89.3% White, 6.3% African American or Black, 0.0% American Indian, 0.0% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.0% from other races, and 4.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.3% of the population. 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 303 people residing i ...
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Cushaw Hydroelectric Project
The Cushaw Hydroelectric Project is a 7.5 megawatt (MW) dam and power house facility owned and operated by Virginia Electric Power Company, operating as Dominion Virginia Power. The project is located on the James River, a navigable waterway of the United States, in Bedford and Amherst Counties, Virginia. The project occupies federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service. Nearby communities include Snowden and Big Island, Virginia. The town of Glasgow, Virginia lies just northwest of the Cushaw Project pool. The project was constructed and began generating electric power in 1930 at the site of a former dam constructed in the 1800s also known as Cushaw Dam or Snowden Dam.Grover, N. C., "Hydrography of Virginia, Geological Survey of Virginia, 1906 The Cushaw Project consists of a 1,550-foot-long, 27-foot-high reinforced concrete dam, with a 1,500-foot-long spillway extending diagonally across the James River. The dam impounds a 138-acre reservoir with a surface elevation o ...
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Big Island Dam
The Big Island Dam is a hydroelectric generation facility on the James River near the community of Big Island, Virginia. The project includes a gravity dam spanning the left side of river and a power house on the right bank which contain hydroelectric generation equipment.US Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams, NIDID VA00902 The dam is located adjacent to and integrated with the large Georgia Pacific paper mill at this location. The dam is located downstream of the nearby Bedford Hydropower Project and is the last in a series of three dams within the span of five miles as the river crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin .... References {{stack, {{Portal, Virginia, Water, Renewable energy Gravity dams Hydroelectric p ...
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Gravity Dams
A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is stable and independent of any other dam section. Characteristics Gravity dams generally require stiff rock foundations of high bearing strength (slightly weathered to fresh), although in rare cases, they have been built on soil foundations. The bearing strength of the foundation limits the allowable position of the resultant force, influencing the overall stability. Also, the stiff nature of the gravity dam structure is unforgiving to differential foundation settlement, which can induce cracking of the dam structure. Gravity dams provide some advantages over embankment dams, the main advantage being that they can tolerate minor over-topping flows without damage, as the concre ...
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Dams On The James River
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect or store water which can be evenly distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, dating to 3,000 BC. The word ''dam'' can be traced back to Middle English, and before that, from Middle Dutch, as seen in the names of many old cities, such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam. History Ancient dams Early dam building took place in Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Dams were used ...
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