That's interesting...I knew he was the namesake if Draffenville but I did not know he was involved in attracting the dam being built where it is now located....
Rickie
Printable View
I like looking at old photos of these projects. When I found Lock E (not that it was ever lost) reading and looking at the photos almost as much fun as watching it materialize on my df screen. I was a union carpenter for several years and one of the old guys I worked with for few years had worked on 13 locks and dams. He did get to work on Olmsted before he retired, that made 14. RIP Ruben.
I vaguely remember from the book (...The Kentucky Project...I think was the name)...that the coffer cells were attached to gate 14 at both the downstream (North) side of gate 14 and the upstream (South) side of gate 14...and then completely encompassing the "Stage 3" construction area...
Then the Tennesse River could have been allowed to flow thru gates 1-13...while leaving the "Stage 3" construction of 15-24 dry in the "Stage 3" coffer cell encirclement...
I'll have to see if I can borrow that book again from its owner..(he refused to sell me that book...for any price)...
Rickie
Rickie,I believe that this could be the coffer dam for 15-24 gates.what do you think?http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...psrdc2q7lv.jpg
The scale of this dam is something I was not ready for
those are huge!
With the river (in the foreground) being on this side (west) of the gates 1-14 showing...and Gates 15-24 concrete not started yet....I would guess this photo would have been during construction of the "Stage 2" gates 1-14....(indicated by all the cranes still affixed atop gates 1-14)...
But they could have used those same cells that were attached to gate 14 to start the coffer dam cells that were to encompass the "Stage 3" construction...
Rickie
The things I read in that old book I borrowed would make an OSHA person have nightmares...
They sent men down into the fissures of the bedrock on ropes (over 100ft down)...to dig the mud out of the fissure seams by hand into buckets that could be raised out if the fissure seams getting ready for concrete...
Rickie
Rickie did you notice in the link you provided that in the photo of "downtown Gilbertsville" the signs on one of the buildings advertised Falstaff beer.
I had not noticed that Falstaff beer sign before...
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...svilletown.jpg
I actually have my Dad's copies of most of these photos from when he worked for TVA....(he was interested in this history because he was born at Gobbler's Knob above the Ky Dam Marina bay)...
He told me stories of how he and his siblings walked across the "peanut patch" in the Taylor Creek bottom to get to the old Gilbertsville grade school...(this "peanut patch" is now the bay where Ky Dam Marina resides)...
Rickie