I&M Canal: Lock: #11at Ottawa, IL

(Satellite)

I&M Canal Overview

We can see the notch for the gate on the right and the hinge hardware in the foreground. I'm glad someone is keeping the vegetation under control on the trail side.

Trail View, Jul 2023

A view of the other (west) end.

Trail View, Jul 2023

Judging from the lighter stone work, they have done some major repairs.

Trail View, Jul 2023

He managed to keep his face in the frame during the entire video. He taught me that the lighter stone is repair work was done in the 1980s when the canal became the first National Heritage Corridor.

Facebook Reel

Trail access is just a little over 1000' feet away.

Satellite

New Orleans, LA, $615m Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps

17th Street Canal: (Satellite)

Orleans Canal: (Satellite)

London Avenue Canal: (Satellite)

The USACE has built a levee between Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans to protect New Orleans from a storm surge in the lake when a hurricane passes through the area. These storm surges can be so severe in the lake that they are now building levees to protect towns on the west shore of the lake. The levee system around New Orleans has openings that allow drainage canals to empty into the lake during normal times. But when a surge is coming, they have to close the gates on those openings to keep the lake out of the city. But the same hurricane is going to dump a lot of rain in the city. So, when the gates are closed, pumps lift the rainwater from the city up into the lake.

Facebook Reel
Filling the Superdome in 90 minutes is equivalent to filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 3.6 seconds.
https://www.floodauthority.org/

There are three canals with gates and pump houses (#8 in this figure). I presume the flow rate in the above video is for all three pump houses combined.

https://www.floodauthority.org/

17th Street Canal

FloodAuthority_pccp

I included the flood wall on the right so that we can see how tall it is. The gates are on the left. I'm guessing the pumps are in the center and diesel-generator sets are on the right because they probably lose power during a hurricane. All of those tanks in the foreground clued me in about the diesel generators. I presume they store diesel fuel.

Street View, Feb 2023

This view confirms that they use sluice gates.

Street View, Oct 2025

Orleans Canal

FloodAuthority_pccp

The Orleans Pump Station is a lot smaller. That makes sense because this canal drains a smaller area between the other two canals. 

Street View, Apr 2024

This is what the lake side looks like.

Street View, Apr 2025

London Canal

FloodAuthority_pccp

Street View, Mar 2024

UP Bridge over Salt Creek in Lincoln, NE. collapsed because of a fire

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

2:24 video @ 0:50
Railroad bridge collapses after fire
The bridge collapsed after burning for just a couple of hours.
The line saw about one train a week.

John Cockle posted two photos with the comment:

Big time bummer: a fire has destroyed the western trestle approach to a UPRR bridge spanning Salt Creek in the heart of Lincoln, NE.  The damage to the trestle section was severe enough to cause one end of the truss bridge to collapse into the creek.  This bridge was actively use by UPRR and they will have to negotiate with BNSF for an alternative.  

I believe this is/was a lattice-type truss bridge. Can anyone confirm that understanding? Second photo is by Gary Binder from the Nebraska Railroads FB page.

Dennis DeBruler: This is Nathan Holth's comment on Bridge Hunter: "it's not a Whipple... it's an extremely rare variation of the lattice truss, the Triple Intersection Warren. Most lattice trusses are Quadruple Intersection Warrens (sometimes called quadrangular). A very nice and highly significant historic bridge." https://web.archive.org/web/20210620010517/https://bridgehunter.com/ne/lancaster/up-salt-creek/

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"Built 1899, Moved here 1921" The bridge is 230' (70m) long, and the span is 100' (30m). [BridgeHunter]

Trail View, Feb 2023

It looks like Salt Creek has levees.

2015 photo by John Marvig via BridgeHunter

When I think of Lincoln, NE, I think of CB&Q. And, indeed, it had six spokes into this town. UP and RI had routes through this town, and C&NW and MoPac had routes that terminated in this town. Today, only the CB&Q and UP routes are still used. I see that US-6 and US-34 also go through this town. The "bridge to nowhere" that is north of the UP bridge used to connect to MoPac.

1964/66 Lincoln Quad @ 24,000

This is a view of the UP bridge from the abandoned MoPac connection.

Milton McNeeLee, May 2017

I-376 Squirrel Hill Tunnel and Bridge Replacement

West Portal: (Satellite, Google Maps labels this the east portal, but it is on the west side.)

East Portal: (Satellite)

Bridge: (Satellite)

Approximate tunnel distance via Google Maps: Total distance: 4,117.28 ft (1.25 km)

This bridge carries 100,000 vehicles a day, and it is scheduled to be closed for 25 days in Summer 2026.

Street View, Oct 2024

They called it the "Commercial Street Bridge." It turns out, it doesn't carry that street, it goes over that street. My clue as to the location was that they are going to do lane changes near Squirrel Hill Tunnel. This video was posted Feb 24, 2026, and all of the steel work is done. They now have to add the deck. It will then be moved over to replace the concrete bridge during the outage in the Summer, 2026.

3:01 video @ 0:25

@ 0:51

@ 0:58

The bridge weights over 22 million pounds.

@ 1:00

1902,1983 CPKC/KCS/GWWR/GM&O Lift Bridge over Illinois River at Pearl, IL

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

GWWR = Gateway Western Railroad

After writing this blog for more than a decade, I'm still finding bridges over the Illinois River.

The 1180' (360m) long bridge has a 425' (130m) lift span. The lift span was added in 1978. [Archived Bridge Hunter]

Or was it 1982-83 per Barbara's commented below. I think it was 1983.

Street View, Jul 2016

2007 photo by Nathan Morton vai ArchivedBridgeHunter

This original 1885 pin-connected truss was relocated to Minnesota. [Archived Bridge Hunter]

Street View, May 2025

Barbara Donovan posted 16 photos with the comment: "1982-83 the removal of the turnstile bridge at Pearl Landing and putting new span in."

DaVe Durham shared with the comment: "Pearl/Grand pass."

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I think the crane was on a barge so it could have stayed above the flood.

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To resolve the conflict of when the lift span was installed, 1978 vs. 1982-83, I researched the flooding of the Illinois River. I found data for Valley City, which is upstream from Perl, IL; and data for Hardin, which is downstream. I'm surprised how different they are. Late 1982 does show up as above Major Flood Stage in the Hardin record.

Valley City:

FloodStageBook, p77

Hardin:

FloodStageBook, p79

I got more Google search results for 1982 than I did for 1978. But some of the results for 1982 were in the Spring rather than in the Winter. It appears that 1982 impacted the tributaries more than the Illinois River itself.

Chart via USGS

Some comments agree that this was in 1982. This is at the Spencerville Covered Bridge. But this was in northeastern Indiana. I guess it does show that there was a lot of rain in the area.

Mary Hollabough Diehl posted

The year of the flood.   Look at the water level!! 

I remember this day like it was yesterday.  Walked down with my dad and he snapped this picture of me.  

Need help with exact year?   1982 ???  

(Photo Credit: Ted A. Hollabaugh)

This report does indicate that there was a flood during December 2-12, 1982. That correlates with Barbara's construction photos. Illinois also had flooding Winter-Spring 1982.

Soon after I published, I found confirmation that the flood started in Dec 2, 1982.