Williams Island Dam

Williams Island Dam is located on the James River in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. Just below the dam, seven miles (11 km) of rapids mark the descent of the river downstream through the geological fall line region to the navigable tidal portion below Richmond, which extends southeast to Hampton Roads.

Williams Island Dam was built in 1905 as part of a drinking water project of the City of Richmond which made use of a portion of the former James River and Kanawha Canal along the north shore of the river west of Richmond. A gravity dam, its height is 7 feet (2.1 m). Its normal storage capacity is estimated to be 50 acre feet (62,000 m³). It was connected with an early waterworks building which is located on Pumphouse Drive just west of the city's Boulevard Bridge.

Williams Island Dam is wholly located within the city's James River Park System. Williams Island, which separates the two sections of the dam, is a 95-acre (380,000 m²) wildlife preserve and has the nest of a bald eagle. According to the James River Park website, Richmond is the only capital city in the lower 48 states to have an eagle nesting inside the corporate limits.

Williams Island (South Australia)

Williams Island is an island located off the south coast of Jussieu Peninsula on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia approximately 34 km (21 mi) south-east of Port Lincoln. It was named by Matthew Flinders for Robert Williams who subsequently lost his life along with seven other crew in the capsize of a cutter launched from the HM Sloop Investigator to search for water on 21 February 1802. Since 2004, the island has been part of the Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area.

Description

Williams Island which is approximately 34 km (21 mi) south-east of Port Lincoln and 1.8 km (1.1 mi) south-south-east of West Point on the Jussieu Peninsula is broadly a U-shaped island with a maximum height of 40 m (130 ft) and an area of 141 ha (350 acres). While the island is bordered by cliffs, a bay with a sandy beach on its north coast provides both a sheltered anchorage for most wind directions and a point of access to the island.

Formation, geology and oceanography

Williams Island was formed about 9100 years ago when sea levels began to rise at the start of the Holocene.