End of Construction (1904)

Below are two pictures taken near the end of the reservoir’s construction.Both of these pictures show a town in transition. In 1904 and 1905, this area transformed from a bustling downtown to the reservoir we know today. These images came from the Digital Commonwealth, an online resource with thousands of photographs from the State’s history.

The first, from August 1904, shows the slow but steady burial of an old train bridge. Instead of removing this bridge, the workers buried it completely—meaning it’s still there, lurking somewhere beneath the soil and a whole lot of water.

The second picture, from April 1905, shows us the causeway / fill from the basin of the reservoir (from the side with the Old Stone Church). This is a particularly eerie, unsettling sight, and surely one which hasn’t been seen in decades.