Quote:
Originally Posted by Centropolis
yep, the barges become much wider at st. louis as they are on the illinois/missouri/ohio and north of st. louis. the chain of rocks (and the chain of rocks canal) north of downtown st. louis is the last impediment to free navigation to the sea. theres photographs of ocean-going navy vessels docked at st. louis during world war one recruiting, central american fruit ships, etc.
|
that's cool.
looking at gmaps, the granite city lock on the chain of rocks canal (just north of st. louis) is the southernmost lock on the mighty miss. i can't believe i didn't know that. i guess it's because i'm so familiar with the mississippi's upper stretches in IL, IA, WI & MN (i even did a 5 day houseboat river trip ages ago), where lock and damns are like every 30 - 50 miles. i guess i just assumed that pattern continued on downstream of st. louis as well.
st. louis' location makes even more sense to me now. not that the 18th century settlers could have known with any certainty that there would never be any locks below st. louis to the sea, but the chain of rocks almost certainly gave them a pretty clear indication that st. louis' spot on the map was a good place to set up camp along the mississippi (along with being near the confluences with the illinois and missouri rivers).