Longhorn Dam
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| Longhorn Dam | |
 The upstream side of Longhorn Dam in 2005 |
|
| Official name | Longhorn Dam |
|---|---|
| Impounds | Colorado River |
| Creates | Lady Bird Lake |
| Locale | Texas, USA |
| Maintained by | City of Austin |
| Length | 506 feet (154 m) |
| Height | 36 feet (11 m) |
| Opening date | 1960 |
| Geographical Data | |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: |
Longhorn Dam is a dam located at 30.2504, -97.7135 (WGS 84 datum) on the Colorado River within the city limits of Austin, Texas, USA. Longhorn Dam was built by the city of Austin and finished in 1960 as the last in a chain of Colorado River dams in central Texas started during the Great Depression. The dam derives its name because it was the ford across the Colorado for longhorn cattle drives as a part of the Chisholm Trail in the late 1800s.
The dam stands 36 feet (11 m) high and runs 506 feet (154 m) across. The "reservoir impoundment length," is 5.75 miles (9.3 km), creating Lady Bird Lake, a freshwater lake with a surface area of 525 acres (2.1 km²) and a 12.5 miles (20.1 km) shoreline. Lady Bird Lake both beautifies the city and ensures a constant water level to form a cooling lake for Austin's Holly Street Power Plant.
On July 10, 2007 two teenage girls canoeing on Lady Bird Lake were sucked through the dam. The lake was closed for recreation due to record amounts of rain in the months of June and July, however the girls were unaware of the ban. Neither of the girls were hurt.[1]
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