 In part due to the successful use of the river's power to develop the industrial potential of the city of Lowell, a consortium of local industrialists (Abbott Lawrence, Edmund Bartlett, Thomas Hopkinson of Lowell, John Nesmith, and Daniel Saunders) set out to create a "New City on the Merrimack", which would later become known as Lawrence.Land was acquired from towns on both sides of the Merrimack River (North Andover, Andover and Methuen) 11 miles downstream from Lowell.However, water power required a fall greater than the provided by the natural river drop; to achieve a usable water height of no less than , a dam of unprecedented size would be required.