Falls Lake is a 12,410 acre (50 km²) reservoir located in Durham, Wake, and Granville counties in North Carolina, USA. Falls Lake extends 28 miles (45 km) up the Neuse River to its source at the confluence of the Eno, Little, and Flat rivers.
The lake is named for the Falls of the Neuse, a section of the Neuse River that falls from the Piedmont into the lower Coastal Plain and which is now submerged under the lake. The lake provides drinking water for several of the surrounding communities, including the city of Raleigh, NC, aids with flood control and serves as a recreation area and wildlife habitat.
The construction of the dam that holds the lake began in 1978 and was completed in 1981. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed and manages the dam. Falls Dam (35°56′30″N 78°34′57″W / 35.94167°N 78.5825°W / 35.94167; -78.5825) is an earthen structure having a top elevation of 291.5 feet (88.8 m) and an overall length of 1,915 feet (584 m).
The height above the streambed is 92.5 feet (28 m).
Famous quotes containing the words falls and/or lake:
“The hand holds no chalk
And each part of the whole falls off
And cannot know it knew, except
Here and there, in cold pockets
Of remembrance, whispers out of time.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)