Partnership
The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and the National Park Service at Lowell National Historical Park.
- Here at the Pawtucket Gatehouse, water from the Merrimack River (except what is flowing over the dam) is directed into Lowell's Northern Canal and into individual mills. Inside the Pawtucket Gatehouse are ten wooden gates that block water or let it out into the Northern Canal.
- When the water is this high, you can't even see the granite dam (with wooden breakaway flashboards on top) holding back the river and directing it into Lowell's canals. The Merrimack River's rapids begin here and fall 32 feet over the course of a mile.
- The dam at Pawtucket Falls once prevented the annual migration of fish such as salmon, shad, and alewife. Eventually fish ladders like this one enabled migratory fish to continue on their upstream journey.
In Lowell, the Merrimack River falls about 32 feet over the course of a mile, starting here at the Pawtucket Falls. You can barely see the dam in this photo, taken when the water level was especially high.
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UMass Lowell -
National Park Service