Silver Lake Dam

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Silver Lake Dam

Silver Lake Dam sits just outside Woodridge, New York. Built in the 1840s under chief engineer Rufus Lord, it was designed to regulate Sandburg Creek and supply water to the summit of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, about 10 miles away. The dam created an 85-acre lake that locals called Woods Lake and later Silver Lake, a popular spot for visitors to Jewish summer resorts in Woodridge and nearby communities.

The dam is a stone structure, 176 feet long and 13 feet high, with a 5-foot-wide top. It has a central spillway about 11 feet wide and 2 feet deep, plus two 15-inch cast-iron waste pipes near the spillway. The interior is dry rubble encased in large mortared slabs.

Improvement work on the canal in the 1840s made a reliable water source essential for the summit. Sandburg Creek was dammed to create the reservoir. By 1895 the dam had major renovations as canal operations declined. A 1914 report described the dam as little changed from its original design, and the lake, called Woods Lake, became a local attraction with beaches and cottages.

In 1999, part of the dam was undermined, draining the lake to about a quarter of its size. The village sought state and federal grants to repair it. The state DEC delayed work while considering reclassifying the dam as higher risk. After approval, the project was put out for bid, but the lowest bid was about $1.5 million, nearly double the budget.