Retro Quad Cities posted
excerpt from the above Quad City Times Story. The Moline Lock was authorized by Congress in the River and Harbor Bill of March 3, 1905. The project called for a channel 250 feet wide and 4 feet deep from the Moline waterfront to the main channel of the Mississippi River by means of a lock and dam at the foot of Benham’s Island. The lock project marked a major shift in the method of improving the 14 miles of rapids from Davenport to LeClaire. Before this, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had used underwater blasting to cut off the chains of rock that reached into the river from both banks, the method first recommended by Capt. Robert E. Lee in 1837 when he arrived in Davenport to map the rapids. Over the next 70 years, the Corps had widened, deepened and straightened the natural steamboat channel. By 1905, however, the rapids were once again an obstacle to navigation. In 1878, Congress had authorized a new four-and-one-half-foot channel for the entire Upper Mississippi. This was accomplished between 1878 and 1900 by the use of wing dams and other means. On the Rock Island Rapids, that would not have worked. And so in 1905, Congress authorized the Moline Lock, the first lock on the Mississippi River below Minneapolis. Moline was chosen for this project for several reasons. Access to the Moline waterfront was blocked by Arsenal Island, especially for steamboats coming upstream. In addition, two of the worst chains on the rapids, the Moline and Duck Creek chains, gave Moline the swiftest and steepest current on the river. At Moline, a rapidly growing farm equipment and manufacturing industry heightened the need for better shipping. The 1905 River and Harbor Bill called for a lock chamber 325 feet long, 80 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Before construction could begin, the depth was changed to 6 feet in anticipation that Congress would soon authorize a new 6-foot-deep river channel. The bill also specified that the lock walls would use poured concrete, a new construction method first developed on the Hennepin Canal near Milan in the 1890s. Until that time, the standard method of lock construction used cut stone. In 1891, Capt. William L. Marshall, the Corps officer in charge of the canal project, requested permission to experiment with concrete. He believed such construction would be cheaper, stronger and more durable than stone. The Hennepin Canal and the Moline Lock represent the first such use of concrete in the United States. For the project, Capt. Marshall had to design the forms for the lock walls, and invent cement-mixing equipment large enough to pour an entire wall at once. These experiments with concrete on the canal and lock proved successful, and shortly helped revolutionize the American construction industry. They also helped facilitate construction on the long-stalled Panama Canal, which the American government had taken over in 1904. The Moline Lock was complete enough to open on Dec. 23, 1907. The United States steam launch Emily became the first boat through the lock. For the next few years, statistics on the use of the Moline Lock were impressive. During June, July and August in its peak year, lockages at Moline surpassed any single month of the famous Soo Locks, and probably surpassed any other lock in the world up to that time. Statistics, however, are deceiving. The Moline Lock was completed just as a long decline in river traffic had set in. Nearly all the boats through the lock were Corps of Engineers work boats and a single ferry service. In 1908, the ferry steamer, B.B., began service between Moline and Bettendorf. In May 1908, the B.B., carrying 17,308 passengers, accounted for 612 lockages. Meanwhile, commercial freight through the lock that same spring amounted to a mere 182 tons. In 1930, Congress authorized a 9-foot channel on the Upper Mississippi from St. Louis to St. Paul to be achieved by a series of locks and dams. By 1934, the Rock Island Rapids had disappeared behind Lock and Dam 15, the first lock and dam in the project, and the Moline Lock was obsolete. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the Moline Lock. Its story will be celebrated Feb. 22 at the fourth annual Henry Farnam dinner, an event that celebrates the accomplishments of the Quad-Cities and its strong ties to the Mississippi River. The On the River desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2286 or lwatson@qctimes.com. [I was not aware that there used to be a 4.5-foot channel on the Upper Mississippi before the 9' channel was built during the depression. Nor did I know that the Hennepin Canal pioneered concrete locks.] | 
