DLD Reference: 20161126 Cairo, Olmsted Dam, Pennsy Bridge over Little Wabash

I've learned on this trip that the brain can filter out foreground "noise" and you can see things in the distance better than the camera can. While driving north on US-52 north of Wickliff, KY, you are close to the Mississippi River, and you can catch glimpses of both bridges on the other side of the confluence. The Ohio River bridge is on the right and the Mississippi River is on the left.

Then we went over the Ohio River bridge.

You can catch glimpses of the Mississippi River Bridge.

Lots of parked tows. Probably because of a backup for Lock #53.

My wife tried taking pictures upstream while on the bridge, but the camera would not fire. I assume it is because the auto focus was going nuts trying to deal with all of the bridge members flashing before it. I'm going to have to learn how to put the lens on manual focus and focus it near infinity.

If I had spoken earlier, my wife could have caught the Mississippi bridge instead of a van column.

At the end of 8th St. is access to the river side of the levee. I parked on this side and walked around.

Coming back, they have marked the various flood levels on the levee. (That is our van in the background.)

They call this block Historic Cairo. The reason I took the picture was the depiction of streetcar tracks in the brick road.

I now have my own picture of a Central Soya car used to carry soybeans. My dad used to work for Central Soya. I figured there must be a Bunge plant nearby.

Part of the cut containing the Central Soya car and the plant in the background.

I confirmed it was Bunge. Judging from the satellite image, this elevator can do rail to barge transshipment as well as supply the plant.

I got this...

...and this view of a rotary kiln.

I was fighting trees to get a closer view of the CN/IC bridge. If I get too close, the levee wall blocks my view.

US-51 goes under the IC with a bridge built in 1903.

This is a levee door. During a flood, it looks like the only way in and out of Cairo is Washington Ave. to Mississippi Levee Rd.

An articulated Ford tractor. Was this built by Steiger or after they bought Versatile?

Depot and caboose in Olmsted, IL.

The new boat launch. A lot more tows parked. They are probably waiting on Lock #53.

This was the other lesson that just because the eye sees something through foreground noise does not mean the camera can. I spent a lot of time driving back slowly back and forth (there was no traffic on the road) trying to get a picture of the worlds largest gantry crane. I deleted a lot of the attempts. That is, this is the best I could got.

Down at the old boat launch. The were a couple of tugboats leaving the parking area. I barely caught the one heading downstream (to the right).

The white thing on the left is the catamaran barge.

The skid for the cradle. I had a hard time getting a picture of the cradle because of the trees. I was not going to walk out into the river or onto their property to get a better view. Minimally, I would have had to go back to the van and change to the "crud shoes" I carry for field trips.

I switched to the telephoto lens to get closeups.

You can see some of the Tainter gates up in the air and the tow in the background that we saw earlier from the old boat launch. You can see other tows in the parking area in the foreground.

Note only has the two advanced a little further, I found a Tainter gate pier between the tow and that grey column. I can't show that pier in the satellite image because it was placed after the image was taken.

The two towers with the fancy roofs closer to the camera are for the upstream lock gates.

A better view of the upstream superstructure for the locks.

I'm still trying to get a picture of the gantry crane.

Finally, I parked at the visitor center.

My wife said this sidewalk extension was open only Mon-Fri and we are there Sat. Fortunately, I did not see that sign.

The dam has had such bad cost and time overruns that parts of this sign have faded really bad.

Finally, some decent shots of the gantry crane because I used the sidewalk on a Sat.

On the left, you can see the cradle.

Sometimes I forget I already took a view. Fortunately, magnetic domains on disk drives have become cheap.

Trying to get shots of the precast bays and what is "up on the hill."

I almost missed these old wicker gates removed from either Dam #52 or #53. They are past their lifetime because it has taken so long to build Olmsted and corroded cast iron is a bigger issue every year.