Middle gate of 5 upper gates at McAlpine Dam. (There are 4 more such gates at the lower gate site, next to the LG&E Ohio Falls Generating Station.) These gates are called Tainter gates after their designer, Jeremiah Burnham Tainter (1836-1920). Each gate is 100 feet wide and 22 feet high.
When water is released from the upstream pool, the gate is raised by cables connected to electric motors (not visible here) at the top of the structure. The gate pivots on the arms on either side, allowing the water to flow underneath. As seen here, a small amount of water flows under the gates even when they are closed. If a gate fails or needs work, maintenance bulkheads, one of which can be seen near top of image, can be lowered to block the water flow.
This section of dam is parallel to and just upstream from the L&I (Fourteenth Street) Bridge.
_______________________________
Ohio River mile 605
Louisville, Kentucky
[Although this area is reached via Clarksville, Indiana, it is part of Kentucky, which owns the river to the low water line of the Indiana bank.]
14-Nov-1998
File # 98k058
scanned from 6x9 cm Kodak PRN-2 (Pro 100) color negative
Licensing
I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.