The great freshet of March, 1902, cut off about another
third, and the recent flood has completed the cycle and entirely wiped
out the benefit due to the river improvement, and the water at the
pumping station stands now at almost precisely the same level that it
stood before any improvements were undertaken. New bars were formed in
approximately the same location as they existed before, and, so far as
possible, except for the changed conditions brought about by the
building of the power station, the condition of the river is not
dissimilar to that existing when the work was commenced.
"In this connection it might be well to state that a New Jersey drainage
commission, in blasting out a channel below the Little Falls dam some
years ago, dumped a considerable portion of the excavation in the deep
water under the Morris Canal viaduct.
"The action of the two great floods, March, 1902, and October, 1903, has
washed a large part of this material out of this deep hole and piled it
up in the river about 300 feet below where the river widens, and reduces
the force of the current.
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