Big Bear Valley was once a sprawling wet meadow laced by a gentle stream, and until 1885 there was no lake here at all. As cities at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains grew, developers sought water for the citrus groves that supported their livelihood, and the valley offered the nearest and best way to augment limited natural rainfall. In 1884, a single arch granite dam was built at the west end of the valley to create a reservoir that captured spring water and yearly snowmelt. The original dam was 53 feet high and 335 feet across, with a 20-foot-wide spillway, and water from Big Bear Lake was released seasonally to crops down the mountain. After a release, the lake level could drop enough for people to walk from here to Big Bear's village. A second dam, completed in 1912 about 100 yards downstream from the original, stood about 20 feet higher and tripled the lake's capacity. A bridge was added across the top of this newer dam in 1924 when the new road from Running Springs into Big Bear was developed. A new bridge was completed in 2010, and when lake levels are low, the top of the original rock dam can still be seen. At the dam, the lake is 72 feet 4 inches deep, stretches 7 miles long, and has a storage capacity of 73,370 acre-feet.