The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-05-17
VISITORS TO THE
BIG WATER-POWER
Provided With Every Facility for OBJ
servatIon Of It's Magnitude and
Methods Of Construction In
the River.
HIGH PLATFORMS THERE
Tens Of Thousands Of Visitors Plan
ming to go on Excursions This
Summer to Greatest Engineer
Work Except Panama.
HIGH PLATFORMS THERE

Adequate provision has been made
for the tens Of thousands of visitors
expected this summer at the greatest
water power development the world
has ever seen, provided by the great
est power dam in the world being
built in the Mississippi river here in
the largest constructor plant under
private control in the world.
The water power company has
shown in this. as in many other things
its desire to treat the general public
with fine courtesy and to make good
in it's announced policy of being nice
to it's neighbors. 1t has built several
large and high observation platforms
from which the whole work can be
seen easily.
How to See the Works
The work is divided into two divi-
sions, named after the state in which
they are located. The entire Iowa
division and the dam progressing
across from the Illinois bluff to with
! in a few hundred feet of the power
house near the Iowa shore can be seen
from the platform at Second and Full
/ ton streets. This is at the lower end
of Keokuk and only five blocks from
Main street. The platform will hold
several hundred persons at once and
is the solid top of big tank which
supplies the water works system OF
the Iowa works. 1t is high up on the
brink of the bluff, but no climbing
1 is necessary to reach 1t. as it is prac-
4 tically on level with the Keokuk
streets from which it is entered.
4 The Illinois division at Hamilton
is seen from the observation platform
on top he mixing plant. 1t, too, is
very high in the air and from it one
looks out along the top of the dam
structure, three-quarters of a mile
long and wide enough on top for three
4 standard guage railroad tracks over
a which the, concrete is transported te
! the forms at the outer end building
toward Iowa.
No Weekly Visitors Inside Works.
From these platforms on weekdays
the visitor sees busting Of 1,50f
men, sixteen locomotives shooting
over fifteen miles of track, nearly ISL
cars. huge derricks. mammoth travel
J, ing cranes and a thousand and one
, smaller machines, all as confusing as
swarm of flies. but working in
wonderful system of organization
most Of 1t in the thirty-five acres
included in the cofferdam in the
:. river.
who has not steel nerves, a quici
: mind and experience in such places
Hence visitors are not allowed inside
the works on week days. On Sundays
when work is stopped, the public i:
admitted without hindrance for the
present.
But, anyhow, the best way to see tht
work intelligently is from the plat
forms provided just outside the works
and overlooking them. 1t is better tt
get on a nearby hillside than Close
to the weather boarding to estimate
. and unueTSldHu thO VI
mansions of the greatest work excep
! the Panama canal is spoken of in unit
Of miles.
.. Many Excursionlsts Going.
IT looks like every excursion plan
ned in this section includes visit t
this water power and big dam Thu
summer. The first of the excursion
lists are already arriving by boat ant
: train. Eminent engineers have COM
: from Europe to see this work, ant
probably this summer the public with
in couple of hundred miles vii
. visit it.
While excursion managers, tn
steamboat people. church societies
lodges and the like are expected t
take advantage Of this opportunit
J for excursions unexpected factors ar
appearing. For instance, the Rose
willie, H., Times-Citizen will brinl
down party composed Of person
who bring 1t a certain number o
subscribers. This enterprise on TIL
part of its manager. e. J. Clarke !!
considered here to be about the mos
unexpected attribute of this creates
water power development Nobod
ever viewed 1t before as circulation
bNactor