Figure 51: Virtual 3D color LIDAR perspective, looking south-west, highlighting finished northeast cut stone corner of historic Furnace Falls Dam. Although disturbed by the construction trenches and cement work of the later wing walls, the finished edge suggests a former, early 19th century, sluiceway to the north of the recently removed cement Spillway. The ability to “reinvestigate” the site in geo-referenced 3D color space provided otherwise unavailable access and proximity to areas of the dam too dangerous to approach during the excavation.
Grossman 2007 Note: True-color laser-radar scan and inset of structureal details in otherwise inaccessable and highly dangerous parts of the unstable, flood-damaged, remains of the 1830 Furnace Falls Dam of the Morris Canal National Historic District. The new and just released millimeter-precise (4 - 6 mm resolution), true-color, 3D laser-radar (Lidar) technology for the first time permits the archaeologist to document important archaeological resources in dangerous settings to the highest Department of Interior and HABS/HAER standards, from the safety of virtual space, after the emergency field operations were completed (Grossman 2004, Figure 51; See Grossman, 2007b, Archaeology of Toxic and Hazardous Environments, Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Pearsall (D), Ed., Elsevier / Academic Press, Oxford, England).