Watch a 100-year-old dam implode with water still behind it

Usually on this website we share the odd implosion video of a building or bridge collapsing. It's not often we see a dam imploded, and especially when it still holds back the water it has kept at bay for 100 years.

Above you can watch a time lapse of the century-old dam on the White Salmon River in Washington state being imploded. The explosives are positioned at the base, so as to allow the water to flow through without the entire dam breaking up and being washed down the valley. It took about 2 hours for the reservoir to drain and the river restoration to commence.

The video was shot back in 2011, but work has continued to return the river to how it was before the dam was erected.

Columbia River Dam set to be breached

The Condit Dam has been in place since 1913 on the White Salmon River, but after years of demands to see it removed, followed by agreement and planning, it is now set to fall next year after the water and sediment behind it has been cleared.

The reservoir the dam created covers 92 acres and contains countless fish. The wild salmon below the dam are being caught and released upstearm of it before the dam is breached in a bid to save them.

In order to breach the dam they first have to let the water and sediment behind it flow out and into the main Columbia River which the White Salmon River used to join. There's thought to be 2.7 million cubic yards of sediment to disperse, hence the need to move wildlife from below the dam first.

October sees the boreholes made to allow for water flow. After that, plans are in place to demolish the concrete dam next April. It will be the second largest dam every demolished in the U. S. and we are hopeful someone thinks to setup a camera and captures a timelapse of the dam coming down. Depending on how they do it we may get a nice video or two out of it at least.

Source: The Spokesman-Review