We cross The River

Looking upriver, from Rock Island, IL . The bridge in the photo is a double-decker bridge, with cars on the lower level, and railroad tracks on the upper. The red things, to the left in this photo, is the dam.  The bridge appears to be sitting on top of the dam, but it's actually beyond it.
The tug boat, at the right of the photo is entering the lock pushing FIFTEEN barges upriver! This is where it gets interesting. The locks here are 600 feet long. The barges, tied together, are more than 1000 feet long. You might also notice that the tug is pretty close to the bridge and is taller than the bridge. Here's what we learned at the Rock Island Lock and Dam Visitor Center: the tug pushes nine of the barges into the lock. Those barges are disconnected from the rest, and the tug backs out of the lock channel. The locks close, the water level changes (depending on whether they're going up- or down-river), and the nine barges, tied together, emerge at the opposite end. They are pulled out on a roller device connected to the jetty, securing them until they can be reconnected with their tugboat. The tug then enters the now vacant lock with the remaining barges, the water level changes, and it emerges on the other side and takes control of those barges again. We were lucky enough to arrive at the visitor center just before this barge passed through.


The photo above was taken later in the day. Earlier, we had driven across the bridge, from Davenport, IA to Rock Island Arsenal, home of an active Army base where guns and armor are manufactured.  The Army Corps of Engineers runs the visitor center.  This tug and barges had been waiting for several hours to lock through, heading upriver.  Normally, they have no wait, so there must have been a problem with the locks.  Fortunate for us!  This photo is looking upriver, with the tug just out of the frame on the left.  The bargemen have just disconnected the nine barges from the tug-and-six....
Then, the lock closes, and water rises...this all took less than 15 minutes!

This is the first nine barges, before the upper lock opened to release them to the end of the jetty, looking upriver.


It was pretty exciting to see this happen!  more, in the next post...