Navigation on the Upper Mississippi River

Navigation on the Upper Mississippi River. . , Because of the rapid growth of population, agriculture, and industry in the Upper Midwest after 1900, Congress authorized the Corps of Engineers to construct the Mississippi River locks and dams. The Mississippi River, once the principal artery of commerce in the Midwest, was inadequate for modern shipping needs in its natural condition. And as shipping costs increased, the growing numbers of Midwest businessmen and farmers demanded a cheap and efficient transportation system., Henry Bosse's Mississippi , Forgotten in the library of a long-past Chief of Engineers, stowed in the pilot house of a dredge boat, set aside in the clock tower building of a Corps of Engineers office lay the works of one of the Mississippi River's greatest photographers. For 100 years, the artist, Henry P. Bosse, remained unknown. Then in the spring of 1990, a Washington, D.C. antique dealer discovered an album of Bosses images in the study of a house that had belonged to Major General Alexander McKenzie. General McKenzie had been the Corps' Chief of Engineers, or top ranking officer, from 1904 to 1908. Within a year, this album would be work over a million dollars and Bosse praised as one of the late nineteenth century's finest photographers., Bosse's album held 169 large, oval, blue or cyanotype photographs that chronicle the first systematic effort to recast the upper Mississippi River from a natural river into a modern commercial highway., Wingdams below Nininger, Minnesota 1891 , Since the mid-19th century, the Corps had improved the Mississippi River for navigation through dredging, snagging and clearing, and channel constriction. The Corps constricted the river with wing dams and the closing of side channels. Together, these measures forced the river down a narrower passage, allowing it to cut through sand and debris in the main channel., Minneiska, Minnesota 1885, The 9-Foot Channel , Federal improvements for navigation on the river began as early as 1824. In 1878, the U.S. Congress authorized the first comprehensive project on the upper Mississippi; a 4 1/2 - foot channel, followed by a 6 - foot channel in 1907., Commercial use of the Upper Mississippi River declined after 1892 as the timber industry, its primary user, exhausted the region's forests. Other factors aggravated the Midwest's transportation problem including the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. Now goods could be shipped more cheaply between the east and west coasts than from the Midwest to either coast., New developments in shipping and increased use on the lower Mississippi River demonstrated the promise of a deep channel on the upper river. Businessmen, civic leaders, and politicians joined to fight for the 9-foot channel project., Responding to the movement, Congress included the 9-foot channel project in the 1930 Rivers and Harbor Act. Congress approved a series of 23 locks and dams to be built to guarantee a 9-foot channel., The locks and dams make a series of pools on the upper Mississippi, much like a stairway, with each pool lower than the next. The pools help keep the river at least 9 feet deep., The project began in 1931 at Lock and Dam 15 in Rock Island, Illinois. By 1940, 26 locks and dams crossed the river from Minneapolis to Alton, Illinois. Lock and dam No. 1 had been completed in 1917., With a consistently deep and reliable channel, commerce returned to the river. Today, there are 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River and more than 90 million tons of commerce moves on the river annually.