Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-05-28
DAMS AT MINNEAPOLIS

p ' = VI
But little is generally known of
the great damage that the Mime.
apol,s dams across the Mississippi
suffered during the spring foods,
as the papers said but little about
it at the time, and then referred
only to the possible injury to
some Of the looping The fol.
lowing from Tuesdays Minneapolis
Tribune gives some idea Of the
extent Of the injury, although
there is an evident effort to draw
it mild: u .aa
The work to be done this sum
mer by the St. Anthony Falls
Water Power company will EN-.
ploy many men and require the
expenditure of many thousands of
dollars. The, most important
! work will be the rebuilding Of the
wall at the center of the new dam.
This was washed out this spring
during the high water. The en-.
gineers now think that the wall
was bulged by the great mass of
logs and ice which came down
when the jam at Durnam's island
broke. The force of the water at
that time was terrific, coming as
it did like a wall down the river.
The mass of logs and ice inter.
twined, striking the dam, weak .
ened 1t so that when the higher
stages of water came it was not in
condition to Withstand the i'm.
mense pressure. This theory is
further carried out in that it was
impossible for the cement used in
laying the stone to have set and
thoroughly hardened during the
short time intervening between
the completion of the dam and the
breaking of the jam. @..,.
The water has now fallen about
ten feet, but it is still impossible
to estimate the damage to the dam,
for a heavy volume of water is
still flowing. However, work to-
wards the rebuilding has been
carried on for some time. A
bridge from the east bank to the
angle Of the dam has been com
pleted, and the work Of build.
ing the Golfer dam to hold the
water back will proceed slowly
from now on. On the west bank
the work Of building an apron to
the gate has been in operation for
some weeks. A Golfer dam was
built to protect the gate and this
will be carried across the rlver to
protect the new wall which is to
be built.
As yet the engineers in charge
are not certain just what kind of
work will be done. Several
schemes haye been proposed to
make the new walls indestruct-
ible. The present wall has it's
foundation below the hard pan,
which is the rlyer's bed, and that
will probably not be changed.
The question is whether to make
the wall thicker and of the same
formation, or to adopt a new plan.
What will be done can more
readily be decided when the Golfer
dam is finished, and the wall ex-
amined.
At St. Anthony Falls, an i'm
portant work is to be done in repair
ing the east sluiceway. This was
practically destroyed as far as it's
utility was concerned by the wash
ing out of the sand rock beneath
the ledge. This sound rock was
tire support of the heavy ledge of
rock, and when once gone, the
weight of the rock, with that of
the water caused it to break off.
This slulceway is a necessity to
relieve the apron. 1t will be re.
membered by older citizens that
years ago there was side apron
running down from tho west bank
If Hennepin island to the main
channel. It's foot formed a right
angle with the main apron, and