Lucky At Lock 15!

When I programmed our Jeep's GPS for a stop at the Mississippi River Visitors Center on Arsenal Island (originally called Rock Island for which the nearby Illinois city got its name), our car ended up at the wrong entrance.  There are only two ways on and off Arsenal Island, America's largest government-owned arsenal, and one of those, the one we chose, is permanently closed.

So we had to cross the Government Bridge, a 1896 twin deck structure that carries both rail (upper level) and road traffic on the lower, into Davenport; circle through Bettendorf and come back across the river to the Moline, Illinois entrance.

Luckily for us, there wasn't a barge going through Lock & Dam 15 when we took our circuitous detour.

Otherwise, we might have been stuck on the Government Bridge for two hours while the swing section of the bridge turned 360 degrees to allow the barges through.

As it was, the military policeman at the Moline entrance gate directed us to the visitors control center.  There Tim and I had to undergo background checks before gaining passes that would allow us on the base.

But all this delay was fortuitous for when we arrived at the lock, a twelve barge tow loaded with grain to the equivalent of 840 semi-trucks was approaching the gates.

First, we saw a towboat come through the lock on its way to help the approaching barge tow.

Lining up to the lock's walls, the towboat at the rear of the convoy slowly nudged the twelve barges into position.

Because twelve barges cannot fit in the lock all at the same time, the crew had to uncoupled the cables holding the first six barges to the second.

Then the captain of the rear towboat reversed out of the lock, dragging the back six barges with him beyond the upper gate.

With the top and bottom gates of the lock now closed, water was released through the values until the water level equaled the downstream river.

The lower gate was opened and the first six floated through only to be tied up below.

The process was repeated for the rear barges.

Finally, the crew roped the two sets of barges together again and off they went down the river.  From start to finish, this process could take two hours to complete.  Since we were free until noon, we stayed to watch it all.

So did the unwitting carloads of people stuck on the Government Bridge for the duration of the maneuver.

As I said, we were the lucky ones!