The dedication reads:
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6
Kensico Dam – Ground Zero Beam of Remembrance.
Kensico Dam – The Rising
Above: The Rising as seen from the West Pavilion.
According to The Official Website for Westchester County Government:
Westchester County’s September 11th Memorial incorporates the names of all the Westchester residents who died, the communities in which they lived and a quote about them from their loved ones. These words are engraved along the outside of the memorial’s circular base. Steel rods extend from the base like the spokes of a wheel before reaching skyward and intertwining. The memorial is surrounded by landscaping that includes perennial plantings and park benches.
The memorial is located at the intersection of many pathways and viewpoints,and thereby extends its presence into the surrounding landscape. The Rising is an open structure. It can be approached from all directions and allows people of all ages and abilities to view it, as well as move through it.
The Rising is the work of Frederic Schwartz, an internationally renowned Manhattan architect who, among many other accomplishments, designed the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal and who was also selected to create the September 11th Memorial for the State of New Jersey.
He founded the THINK team, whose design was selected as a finalist for the redesign of the World Trade Center. Schwartz, whose place of business was in view of the Twin Towers and who donated his time to the project, said that he wanted to design a memorial that expressed the immensity of such a loss while still conveying a sense of hope. His intention was to honor each person individually and unite them together as a community.
Schwartz won a citation award from the Westchester/Mid-Hudson chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for his design of The Rising.
Looking towards the dam
Closer view showing details of the structure
Inside looking up
One of the entrances to the memorial
Names on the base
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6
Kensico Dam – Around the base
The East pavilion and cascade basin showing details of the architectural design and the rugged character of the stonework in keeping with the massive structure. Note the two small dots at the top. They’re the heads of people looking over the parapet. None that none of the fountains, cascades etc. were working when I was there. I don’t know if for some reason they’re permanently closed, or whether they were just closed during Winter. I’ll have to go back in Summer and see.
East Fountain and Cascade.
East Pavilion, East Fountain and Cascade.
Closer view of the cascade.
Looking up the face of the dam.
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6
Kensico Dam – A memorial plaque
The person being honored is Merritt Smith and the inscription reads: 1892-1926. Merritt H. Smith. Engineer for Forty years of the Water Supply of the City of New York. Colonel of Artillery in the Great War.
To get a sense of the number of people involved in this project see the extract below from The World’s Greatest Aqueduct. Water from the Catskill Mountains to the City of New York, by Alfred Doughlas Flinn, Harper’s Monthly, 1909 (reference to Merritt Smith in bold):
Goethe once wrote, “Dem Menschen ist ein Mensch noch immer lieber als ein Engel.” (To mankind men are always dearer than angels). And so perchance the reader may be possessed of sufficient human interest to inquire by what marshaling of men’s brains and brawn these great works are to be wrought. By appointment of Mayor George B. McClellan, under special legislation, John A. Bensel, a civil engineer, Charles N. Chadwick, a business man, and Charles A. Shaw, formerly president of the Hanover Fire Insurance Company, constitute the Board of Water Supply of the City of New York. They were chosen from lists of three names presented respectively by the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers’ Association of New York, and the Board of Fire Underwriters. Mr. Bensel is president of the board, and succeeded Mr. J. Edward Simmons, who resigned in January, 1908, and is now president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Two bureaus comprise the board’s forces. In the Administration Bureau are the secretary, auditor, chief clerk, and purchasing agent, adjuster of claims, and chief of aqueduct patrolmen, each having a necessary corps of assistants, totaling for the bureau about 125 persons. Consulting Engineer John R. Freeman is the engineer adviser of the commissioners. At the head of the Engineering Bureau is Chief Engineer J. Waldo Smith. On his staff of consultants are Professor William H. Burr, Mr. Frederic P. Stearns, Allen Hazen, George W. Fuller, and a few other engineers and scientists of national and international reputation. Mr. Charles L. Harrison is Deputy Chief Engineer. Because of the geographical extent and the magnitude of the works, the Engineering Bureau has been organized in four departments: the Headquarters Department, with Alfred D. Flinn, Department Engineer, has charge of preparing designs and specifications for the dams, aqueducts, and other structures; executive and civil-service matters, inspection of manufactured materials for construction, and preparation of real estate maps and documents for all the departments, and in addition surveys and construction within the city limits. The Reservoir Department, with Carleton E. Davis at its head, is charged with all surveys and construction on the watersheds. Its chief work at present is the Ashokan reservoir, with its great dams and the headworks of the Catskill aqueduct. From the headworks to the divide of the Croton watershed sixty miles of Catskill aqueduct is under the care of the Northern Aqueduct Department, Robert Ridgway, Department Engineer, to whom falls the Hudson River crossing and the great siphons under the Rondout, Wallkill, and Moodna valleys. The remainder of Catskill aqueduct, with Kensico and Hill View reservoirs and the filters, falls to the Southern Aqueduct Department, with Merritt H. Smith as Department Engineer. The departments are divided into three or more divisions, which in turn are subdivided into several sections. Including engineers, inspectors, stenographers, clerks, laborers, and other assistants, the Engineering Bureau contains nearly 1000 persons.
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6
Kensico Dam – Two final views from the top of the dam
The view above is from the west end of the dam looking east. The picture below shows the view from the east end of the dam looking west.
The figures at the base of the dam give a sense of scale. You get an idea of just how large this structure is.
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6