Engineering
Books
- The Dam Above Johnstown: The South Fork Club, the Flood of 1889 and the Price of Neglect The South Fork Club, the Flood of 1889, and the Price of Neglect · Liszt Think
On May 31, 1889, twenty million tons of water released from a patched earthen dam obliterated Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in fifty-seven minutes.
- The Reservoir Above Johnstown…purpose had changed. The dam was no longer a canal reservoir managed by state engineers. It was a private lake managed by owners who had no engineering expertise and no regulatory oversight. The structure had not been upgraded. It had been allowed to degrade. The deferred-maintenance debt w…
- The Club Forms and Lowers the Dam…and the iron and the mud, in the height of the crest and the width of the spillway and the absence of the pipes. The work proceeded without engineering plans. No professional engineer supervised the modifications. No public authority reviewed them. No permit was required. The Commonwealth h…
- The Club's Members and Their World…recorded ice deliveries, tennis balls, and the salary of the groundskeeper. It did not record masonry work on the dam. It did not record an engineering inspection. It did not record a spillway clearance. The dam held. The lake was full. The clubhouse was open. The season was pleasant. The d…