Monday, September 27, 2010

A barge going through the locks at Keokuk

The barge floating into the lock. There are large cables tied to either side to keep it on a straight course. It takes about 10 minutes to get all the way from the back to the front.
The railroad and road swings back. This is the old road before the new bridge was built, but the railroad still uses the track, so they can't just take it out.

The gates of the lock swing open. That is so amazing to see such large gates open up!


The gates begin to open. They swing back into an indentation that allows the barge to float through freely.




The front of the barge starts to move through the gates. At first, it looked like it only had about one foot clearance on each side, but upon closer examination, it had a whole three feet on each side.





Finally, the tug comes through. It's amazing how much smaller it looks out in the middle of the river as opposed to standing on top of it.






The final phase is that it pulls off into the Mississippi River in the deepest part and moves on downriver to New Orleans where most of the cargo will be sent overseas.







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