Chain of Rocks Water Intake towers?

[Nicotti]

Why anchor a boat to it? Just have a driver come along side and drop you off then wait upstream till you're ready to get off the thing, then they can swing back down and pick you up.

[Freak]

Still doesn't sound as bad as a raft full of soccer moms going down the Grand canyon.

[Nicotti]

[Avenue Gent]

Cool photo!

[Ampico66]

I was able to talk to an official at the city water department today at the Chain of Rocks facility. This man had been to both of the water intake structures personally, several times. He told me the buildings are empty aside from an old heating stove that was too heavy to remove. The interiors are stark and bare, just a cement floor and bare walls, no room partitions. They were only occupied (a hundred years ago) during the coldest months of the year to keep ice from building up at the intake port. A worker would have to raise and lower a door that would block the suction intake in order to let the river current sweep away the ice, then the door would be re-opened. In current times, no photos would be permitted inside because of post 9/11 security concerns. This man also told me that there have been several inquiries for historical interior photos, but none have been found. The structure sits on a shaft which goes down 70 feet into the bedrock and makes a 90 degree turn into a tunnel that goes under the bedrock into the water processing plant. The water dept worker told me that the buildings are 3 levels, that main floor, the upper floor which would have been a little apartment, and the lower floor with rooms which were "coal rooms" in his estimation.

The water department has a lot of historical photos of the structures being built, however. The only photos he has are those of mechanical pipe fittings and valves which are nondescript and do not show any detail of the actual building. I can only imagine what an amazing excavation it was back in the 1890s during construction...

I am currently contacting the Post Dispatch, Public Library and the Missouri History Museum in search of photos. No word back yet. A friend of mine recalls seeing interior photos of the buildings published in the newspaper years ago.

[SubLunar]

Excellent.

[Avenue Gent]

Awesome info! Keep us posted.

[SubLunar]

I'll try my giant vagina boat option while you pursue the penis stilts.

It always works best to combine the penis and vagina methods into one big peni-vaginal boat complex, and make sure there is enough thrust to fight the might current, for the river's flow is heavy this time of the month.

Is the river's flow light enough for the peni-vaginal-boat yet? The creeks around here have been dryer than my 3rd grade teacher's 70 year old cooter.

[Willard]

I would also recommend the Library of Congress as a last resort on finding interior photos. It's a long shot, but it's interesting the photos they have archived.

[VintageLace]

Noticed some pics of the water tunnel from Intake Tower #2 during construction. (Engineering & Contracting, June 24, 1914, Vol XLI, No 25)

Several people mentioned some interior photos published in Post Dispatch, possibly one of the insert sections (Parade?). Checking that out but can't seem to find with online search.

-Melissa

[SubLunar]

Wow awesome find! Thanks for that.

Anyone know how the water level is there nowadays? I don't think we could ask for a better drought to get us as close as possible to these towers.

[t7]

Today's reports say about 3.5 ft by the Arch, and 4.5 ft by Alton. It's been going down and should reach about 2 ft if we don't get much rain in the next week.

[Batman]

Today's reports say about 3.5 ft by the Arch, and 4.5 ft by Alton. It's been going down and should reach about 2 ft if we don't get much rain in the next week.

With water levels like that I'm surprised there isn't water rationing going on in the county and city. I will say with the levels being so low and only getting lower, I bet someone with a metal detector would find some cool stuff out in the river bed.

[t7]

http://www.stltoday.com/business/missis ... 0f31a.html

It says the upper Mississippi isn't as low.

[Nicotti]

When the gage is at 2ft, the river isn't 2 ft deep. It's just the gage height.