Lake Braddock is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

in the community of

Burke Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 census, it is the most populous county in Virginia, the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, United States. Lake Braddock is created by an impoundment on a tributary stream of

Pohick Creek Pohick Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary stream of the Potomac River in Fairfax County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It takes its n ...

, itself a tributary of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

. In 1969, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Northern Virginia Soil District signed contracts which allowed the construction of the dam impounding the tributary of the Pohick creek in Burke. The $138,500 cost of the dam, intended as the first of eight to control

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Ea ...

and flooding in the Pohick watershed, was split between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Yeonas Development Corporation, the latter of which intended to build a 1000-unit development on the surrounding . The ultimate cost of the dam creating the lake was $93,000 to the U.S. Government and $104,000 to Yeonas. The fact that the lake included no public recreation facilities despite being financed with public money was the subject of controversy, and led to the amendment of the

Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act The United States Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act of 1954 () is a United States statute. It has been amended several times. Under this Act, the Soil Conservation Service at the Department of Agriculture provides planning assistance ...

in 1972 to require public access to all such facilities constructed in the future.

References

Braddock Protected areas of Fairfax County, Virginia Braddock Braddock {{FairfaxCountyVA-geo-stub