1912 Collapse of the Nashville City Reservoir: From Failure to Fortress

As the City of Nashville, Tennessee grew in the late 1800s, the need for a reliable water supply became imminent. After consideration of multiple potential reservoir locations, a site on Kirkpatrick’s Hill near 8th Avenue in the heart of the city was ultimately selected for the City’s largest reservoir yet. An elliptical stone masonry dam consisting of two (2) 25 million-gallon basins (east and west) divided by a splitter wall and weir was constructed using on-site quarried limestone. Construction was completed in August 1889 and first filling began that October. During and immediately following first filling of the reservoir, significant leaks were observed in the stone masonry dam and in the limestone foundation, particularly at the east basin. The observed leakage was mostly dismissed over the ensuing years and development around the reservoir continued. In late 1912, local residents began to notice signs of increased seepage at several properties surrounding the reservoir. While the City took some mitigation actions, these actions were not sufficient to prevent the failure of the reservoir just after midnight on November 5, 1912, when portions of the masonry wall broke away and released the east basin, sending roughly 25 million gallons of water downstream. No warning was provided to surrounding residents, but miraculously no lives were lost, though multiple properties did suffer substantial damage. After much discussion, including whether to abandon the site altogether, the reservoir was repaired and put back into service in 1915, and several major upgrades have been made to the reservoir since. The Nashville City Reservoir (or 8th Avenue Reservoir) remains in service to this day as the largest reservoir within the City, playing a critical role in Nashville’s waterworks system.
For this presentation and case study, the authors will further explore the history of the reservoir construction, failure, and subsequent repairs and upgrades; the likely failure mode(s) for the structure; and lessons learned associated with the failure. We will coordinate with the owner of the reservoir, Metro Water Services of Nashville, and a local historian, Mr. Allen Forkum, to provide additional insight on the history of the structure and its importance to the legacy of the City of Nashville.