According to the US Army Corps Of Engineers, this dam consists of a 934 foot long main structure (5 roller gates, 10 Tainter gates), and an earth embankment of 17,500 feet featuring two secondary spillways of 938 feet and 1,338 feet. The lock is the standard size of 110 foot wide by 600 foot long. The auxiliary lock is not in use.

The river is about 2-1/2 miles wide at this point, with the main channel being about 1,200 feet wide. Doing the math, we find that the sum total of the embankment plus main dam length is well over a mile longer than the width of the river. As it turns out, the embankment heads up stream several thousand feet before it turns northwest to cross the river at an angle.

Genoa is home to one of the first commercial nuclear power plants, the La Crosse Nuclear Generating Station. It was closed in 1987 and has since been permanently partially dismantled. It was a small boiling water plant. The structure still exists, and there is a roadside marker in the parking lot (of the power plant) that describes the history of the site.