The Ashfork Bainbridge Steel Dam, the first large

steel dam A steel dam is a type of dam (a structure to impound or retard the flow of water) that is made of steel, rather than the more common masonry, earthworks, concrete or timber construction materials. Relatively few examples were ever built. Of the ...

in the world, and one of only three ever built in the United States, was constructed in 1898 by the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

(ATSF) to supply water for railway operations near

Ash Fork, Arizona Ash Fork is a census-designated place in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. Its population was 396 at the 2010 U.S. Census, down from 457 in 2000. Geography Ash Fork is located at (35.221236, -112.487100). According to the United States ...

. It is named for the town of Ash Fork, and for Francis H. Bainbridge, a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and graduate of

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

(RPI), a member of the

Rensselaer Society of Engineers The Rensselaer Society of Engineers (RSE) is a social fraternity founded in 1866 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Originally named The Pi Eta Scientific Society, the organization was incorporated in 1873 in the state of New York. A ...

, and an engineer for ATSF. The dam has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 1976.

Background

The ATSF and other railroads had to make special provisions for water supply in desert conditions, as non condensing

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s consumed a prodigious amount of water. The usual approach was to construct a dam to retain surface water, or to drill a series of

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s, and store the water in a

water tank A water tank is a container for storing water. Water tanks are used to provide storage of water for use in many applications, drinking water, irrigation agriculture, fire suppression, agricultural farming, both for plants and livestock, chemi ...

. Railroad communities often grew up around these reservoirs or

water stop A water stop or water station on a railroad is a place where steam trains stop to replenish water. The stopping of the train itself is also referred to as a "water stop". The term originates from the times of steam engines when large amounts of ...

s. 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 A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

lines previously. Railroads in the U.S. and elsewhere had been leaders in structural development. The

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ...

s and viaducts of the early 19th century had given way to bridges made mostly of

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

, 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

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 In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity. It is a quantity that describes the magnitude of forces that cause deformation. Stress is defined as ''force per unit area''. When an object is pulled apart by a force it will cause elonga ...

forces on the girders holding the plates up. This transmits force to the ground without the

bending moment In solid mechanics, a bending moment is the reaction induced in a structural element when an external force or moment is applied to the element, causing the element to bend. The most common or simplest structural element subjected to bending mome ...

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 to the east of Ash Fork, in Johnson Canyon, and about west of

Williams, Arizona Williams ( yuf-x-hav, Wii Gvʼul) is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40. It is also the souther ...

. It is near the former

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

and

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

. About a mile upstream lies Stone Dam, a masonry structure constructed 13 years later. The

Grand Canyon Railway The Grand Canyon Railway is a heritage railroad which carries passengers between Williams, Arizona, and the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The railroad, built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, was completed on September 1 ...

originates in Williams, branching from the ATSF main that this dam served, and runs northeast to the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

Construction details

The dam was fabricated by the

Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company The Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company (WB&I) was a fabricator and erector of iron and steel bridges and other large structures. According to one source it was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1888. According to another source, the firm was foun ...

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 (equivalent to $ million today). The structure gets its scalloped appearance from 24 curved () steel plates that slope downstream. Loose and rigid plates are alternated to compensate for a temperature range from to . The central steel section is long, high, and weighs about . No

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

was provided; instead, the dam was designed to withstand

overtop A dam failure or dam burst is a catastrophic type of structural failure characterized by the sudden, rapid, and uncontrolled release of impounded water or the likelihood of such an uncontrolled release. Between the years 2000 and 2009 more than ...

ping of of water pouring directly over its crest. It holds about of water when full.

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." In a survey in 1955, George Lamb 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. The

Kaibab National Forest At 1.6 million acres (650,000 ha) the Kaibab National Forest borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. It is divided into three major sections: the ''North Kaibab Ranger District'' (offices in Fredonia ...

(part of the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

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

in 1976 with a structure ID of #76000373.

Notes

External links

*
Side Canyon
web site on Ash Fork with background material on the town
Arizona Society of Civil Engineers 150th anniversary booklet
on historic civil engineering landmarks

source of some of the quotes and information in this article * ttp://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/Coconino/state.html National Register of Historic Placesentry for the dam * The dam is shown in th
lower illustration on this page
taken from a

"works of graduates" booklet from 1931. The illustration is an in progress shot. Notation "Designed and patented by F. H. Bainbridge '94" at bottom. * {{Registered Historic Places Buildings and structures in Coconino County, Arizona Dams in Arizona Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Dams completed in 1898 1898 establishments in Arizona Territory Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Steel dams Historic American Engineering Record in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Coconino County, Arizona