To create the 108 mile Schuylkill Navigation system, a series of dams, locks, and canals were built along the river. Felix Dam No. 16 and Rothermel's or Ritz's Lock, Lock No. 42, stood north of Reading past Leiz's Dam and Kelly's Lock. The lock and locktender's house were begun in 1823 using native limestone trimmed with sandstone. The dam, also begun in 1823, was built on limestone bedrock to be 600 feet long and made of 8 to 9 foot tall wooden timbers fastened with barbed, 1 inch square iron pegs. These timbers were hand laid to form a crib that, once filled with rods and capped with planks, formed the dam, and the rock fill now stabilizes the western riverbank. Its design was called an Inclined Back Slope Dam. The first Felix Dam remained in service until 1850, when two floods damaged its eastern quarter section. The resulting loss of trade continued into the spring of 1851, when the 150 foot breach was finally reconstructed through temporary efforts that allowed the canal to operate and remain profitable until the second Felix Dam was built.