Lake Austin

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The Lake Austin, originally Lake McDonald is a pent-up by Tom Miller Dam Lake in the west of Austin, Texas. The lake is one mentioned by six major Texas Highland Lakes reservoirs on the Colorado River, Texas, the Lower Colorado River Authority and serves mainly of hydroelectric generation of power - the power plant has two 6,750 kW generators. It is 20 mi ( ≈ 32.2 km ) long and up to 1,300 ft ( ≈ 400 m) wide.

History

Built on the site of the present dam, there were already two late 19th century or early 20th century, built reservoirs, the first from 1890 to 1893 was originally a storage space of 49,300 acre-feet ( ≈ 0.06 km ³), it shrank by sediment within seven years to 25,000 acre-feet ( ≈ 0.03 km ³ ); the masonry dam was largely destroyed by a flood in 1900, see Austin Dam ( Texas). The second dam was built in 1911-15, but in 1915 and 1918 severely damaged by flooding in 1935 and largely destroyed. The third and current dam was built from 1938 to 1940. The water level of the lake is kept substantially constant, since some parts of the city of Austin are on its banks.