Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Whitewater Canal Locks and Duck Creek Aqueduct near Metamora, IN

Lock 25: (Satellite)
Lock 24: (Satellite)
Locks 23+22: (Satellite, if they still exist, they are hidden under the tree canopy)
Aqueduct: (Satellite)

Street View of Lock 24, May 2018

Christine McCalley, Aug 2020

Lock 25 is just north of the mill building.
Lilly Tree, Feb 2019

Note that Duck Creek Aqueduct is the only covered bridge aqueduct in the United States.
E.E. Corum, Jul 2020

IndianaMuseum
"Originally constructed in 1843, the aqueduct was partially destroyed by a flood in 1846. Shortly afterward, it was rebuilt with a modified Burr arch truss more than 75 feet long. The Duck Creek Aqueduct is very unique — so much so that it was featured in an edition of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. It is perhaps the only covered wooden aqueduct still operating in the United States. Engineers designed this aqueduct to carry the canal and its boats above Duck Creek. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark."

Canal Society of Indiana posted
"A 'tumble' acts like a spillway on a lake, allowing excess water to bypass a lock in the canal. Without a bypass water would pool behind the lock and spill over the banks of the canal as water by gravity flows from higher to a lower level."

Wikimedia, Public Domain

Canal Society of Indiana posted
Timmers enjoying a summer evening at Gordon's Lock in Metatmora
[The date was June 2010. It certainly had a lot better flow back then than I caught with the Jul 2020 Street View above.]

Canal Society of Indiana posted
The second type of aqueduct was the enclosed or covered bridge type. The construction is the same as the open trunk. Then the structure is enclosed with a wooden frame above to protect the timber frame that is exposed to weathering in the open trunk style. There is a total of 20 aqueducts on the Wabash & Erie Canal in Indiana, but only 5 were roofed and enclosed. The longest, 510 feet long, was across the White River near Petersburg. It was roofed. On the Whitewater Canal there were 2 aqueducts. One crossed the Whitewater River just south of Laurel, and the next was at Duck Creek as shown in the photo below [above].
Kirk Patrick Shorter: There is a 3rd on the canal.... very small & easily missed. It is at the area of Goose Creek.






















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