The Cairo bulletin., 1914-06-28
Many Cairo People Not Familiar
With How Weather Bureau
Measures Stages.
CAIRO IS 3l4 FEET
/ ABOVE THE SEA LEVEL
Zero of River Guage S the Record
of the Lowest Stage of
the River.

Down at the foot of Fourth street
ID long strip of metal set in CON
crete. extending from the leyee
wall down into the water. To the
unobserving stranger this appears
to be merely a convenient walk
from the top of the levee to the
water, enabling one to traverse the
rocky slope with case.
This, however. as every res deR',
OF Cairo knows, forms part OF the
river guage The whole guage is
constructed in two sections, one sec
tion, the inclined, starting from un-
der the water and extending to the
leyee wall. where the vertical sec
ton begins, Both sections of the
reau, except the User portion of
the inclined section. from . TO 8
feet, which is the property of the
L. s. Engineer Corps,
The inclined section which ex-
tends from the rive~ depth of 2 to
so feet. is 233 feet in length. As
this guage will measure any stage
of the river from 2 90 so ~r@a, q
total depth of So feet, it can be
seen that every time the river rises
one foot, ii will flow AS feet far
ther up on the cuage.
Tho guagc fom 2 to . feet. or
the first II feet, consists of 10 by
- inch oak timoers, secured 10 a
wooden crib. sunk into the face of
the leyee. An IRON strap, As inchc'
wide. is spiked to the top surface
of the timbers and gIaiuatons are
cut into its face.
From 9 to 80 feet the suagc cor.
sists of 2 inch steel IT beams laid
in bed of concrete -0m 5 to 4 y
feet in depth and from 2l2 TO feet
wide. Graduatons are cut into the
surface of the "l' beams.
The vertical section, 80 to 55.9
feet, is imbcdded in the outside
face of the Il" shaped end Of Nhe
concrete wall. 1t is made of by
y inch steel strips and ordinations
are cut into its face. The gradua-
tions extend from . feet below tC
$50 feet above the zero mark.
There is a false idea that the zero
of the stage is set at the bottom
of the river This would be an i'm
possibility as the bed Cf the river
is irregular and changeable. Prior
to Oct. 25, 1871, the stage of the
river at Cairo was not measured. On
that day the zero of the stage was
set at the low stage of the river
Two months later, on Dee. 21. 1871
the river dropped to one foot below
zero.
The United States tench mark
No. |, an arbitrary pcnt which
marks a certain distance gh"vo seg
level, and is installed ty t%e co"or"
ment in various cities as = ma 20
of convenience in reckoning attitudes
near it, in Cairo. is a small hole in
the center of copper bolt in ths
northwest face of the c'-stom house
wall, distant 23.6 feet from thr
northwest corner. and feet abov,
the ground 1t is All feet abov,
the zero of the guage and 317.5 fee
above sea level
Bench mark No. 9 Is small hoI
in a copper bolt in the southeas
side of the 'Flilting containing tn,
offices of the Cairo Trust property
and is located on Washington ave
nue. between Eighteenth and Nine
teenth streets. The bolt is 14.6 fee
from the southeast corner and i
81 feet below the surface of .h
water table. 1t IS asa feet abov
the zero of the guage and 31S.s fee
above sea level
So the years pass, and the guag
goes on serving its dual uses, tha
of measuring the river guage an
that of providing a comfortable patl
for those who go down to the river