A wicket dam, Chanoine wicket movable dam, or barrage à hausse mobile is a movable barrier across the width of a river that is used to hold up water and allow navigation under low-water conditions.
William Price Craighill completed the first of the moveable wicket dams built in the United States, after visiting France to study their use.
[1] was constructed by William Emery Merrill at Davis's Island, 5½ miles below Pittsburgh.
From 1875 until the turn of the century, the United States Army Corps of Engineers constructed a series of 53 wicket dams to canalize the Ohio River to meet the demands of year-round navigation.
[2] In the 1950s, the Corps undertook the Ohio River Navigation Modernization Program to replace the obsolete system of wicket dams and small locks.