Long Pond Ironworks Virtual Tour

1873 Water Wheel
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This large stonework feature was built in 1873 to support an immense 50 foot (some sources say 90 foot) waterwheel, part of a large scale rebuilding of the facility here at Long Pond. The plan called for two remodeled anthracite furnaces, a rolling mill and an entirely new hydropower system which would have included damming the river upstream at an elevation that comes out at the top of this hill to turn the giant over shot wheel operating here.

Two events conspired to end this project:

  1. an economic depression hit the country in 1873. Producing pig iron from the furnace was not profitable.
  2. the railroad, which had just been completed to the furnace, was now to continue up the valley to Greenwood Lake. A rail line along the river would not be possible with the new dam and increased water level. The project was stopped, the wheel was never built and we are left with this magnificent stone foundation

1873 water wheel site


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