- City:
- Austin, TX
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Dams
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1940
Description
On April 7, 1900, the Austin Dam, built in the 1890s across the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, failed catastrophically during a flood killing 47 people. The dam was rebuilt starting in 1909, but was destroyed again by flooding in 1915. The City of Austin was unable to raise funds to repair the dam until 1938 when Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson persuaded the Public Works Administration to finance rebuilding the dam at a cost of $2,300,000. The dam was renamed Tom Miller Dam for a former Austin mayor.
Tom Miller Dam was built between 1938 and 1949 atop the remains of the previous two dams. The dam is 100.5 feet high and 1,590 feet long. It impounds Lake Austin and uses the water to generate 17 megawatts of power through two hydroelectric turbines. The dam is owned by the City of Austin but maintained and operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority.
Source notes
Caro, Robert A. "The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I". New York: Random House, 1990. p. 497 https://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/new.html https://www.lcra.org/water/dams-and-lakes/pages/miller-dam.aspxSite originally submitted by Larry Moore on March 28, 2014.
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