The Other Direction

Follow up to yesterday's photo. This is the view to the east from the top of the Arch, across the Mississippi to East St. Louis, Illinois.

The river is pretty high but not flooding. You can see how close it comes to its banks. The white vertical column in the center is the Gateway Geyser, a water jet directly across from the Arch. It goes off at 12, 3 and 6, and we were fortunate to be at the top at noon. How high it blasts depends of the wind. If the air is still it blows as high as the Arch itself. The water spreads too far when it's windy to go to full height. It looks a lot better from down close.

       

You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows

One of everyone's favorite and most enduring Bob Dylan lyrics. (Note who is in the lower left of this YouTube clip.)

Okay, the last of the geyser pix. This one, taken from my office window, is a broader view but the base is concealed by a grain elevator. Looks like a strong wind out of the south. The water is blowing farther horizontally than vertically. We can figure out the direction for ourselves.         

Landscape or Portrait?

I'm a bit hard up for material so I'm sort of rotating yesterday's post. There's a similar shot in color if anyone wants to see it.  The horizontal pulls in more of the clouds.

There is a fourth small jet off-frame to the right. You can see just a bit of its spray here. Wikipedia says "the four minor fountains represent the four rivers which converge at St. Louis and East St. Louis." So, um, there's the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Illinois just to the north, and the - what? There's a piddly local river at the southern edge of the city coming in from the west called the Meramec but it's nothing to brag about. Someone took poetic license.    

Tech tip: you get this dramatic effect of a dark blue sky by using a polarizing filter and rotating it to its darkest position. If you want to go to the trouble, you can also use a CTO (color temperature orange) filter on your lens or do the equivalent in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Thar She Blows

Every once in a while I get across the river to shoot the Gateway Geyser. It is in Malcolm Martin Memorial Park in East St. Louis, Illinois. I see it from my office window but I'm not often free to visit at the right time.

It's quite a lot bigger than the Jet d'Eau in Geneva, which impressed me when I saw it, but ours goes off just three times a day, noon, 3 and 6, in the warmer months. It can blow as high as the Arch is tall, 630 feet / 192 meters, but only when the wind is soft. Otherwise it would rain all over the surrounding neighborhoods and can be a hazard for planes using a nearby private airport. I don't think it was at its maximum height yesterday.        

Visitor To The Gateway Geyser

The Gateway Geyser has been on the blog a few times. (Some older pictures here and here.) It's the giant water jet across from the Arch in East St. Louis, Illinois, that pops up exactly as high as the Arch itself (633 feet/192 meters) if the wind isn't too high. You can see what happens if it's gusty.

This was taken under the Arch, on top of the stairs down to the Mississippi. The picture would have been okay but then this brilliant bird photobombed my shot.

That contraption on the left looks like part of a chemical plant. It's actually the suction/blower mechanism that takes grain from river barges back and forth to a big set of storage elevators off to the left of the frame.                                             

3 PM: Fire To The North, Water To The East

I was going to post some more spring flowers today but, you know, more flowers. So I was sitting at my desk at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon in my usual torpor when I glanced out my window to the north (I'm in a northeast corner). High, billowing black smoke was rising from somewhere behind the football stadium. I looked at a couple of local news sites and found nothing. 

Then a glance to east across the Mississippi: the Gateway Geyser was having its mid-afternoon blow. This is directly across the river from the Arch. From my angle it's behind a grain elevator. It goes off at noon, 3 and 6 during the warm months, rising as high as the Arch itself when the wind is calm, like yesterday. The only one in the world that's higher is in Saudi Arabia.

Now if they could only direct that water canon back to the Missouri side.                       

Well, It's Not Geneva

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I have visited Geneva, Switzerland, once. Years ago, Mrs. C, the kids and I were staying in the Jura Mountains of eastern France and we popped over for a day. What I remember was that it was pretty, it was the most expensive place on earth I had visited to date and it had this enormous water spout shoot up out of the lake toward the sky.

It was, of course, the famous Jet d'Eau. (My American ears heard only "jeddo" for a while and I had no idea what they were talking about). Well, the Lou has its own version. This is the Gateway Geyser. It is straight across the Mississippi from the Arch in Illinois. Unlike its Swiss counterpart, it goes off for 15 minutes, three times a day. But it's pretty cool - at its maximum the water spray is as high as the Arch itself, quite a lot higher than the Jet d'Eau. I think they have to turn it down sometimes, depending on the wind, for aircraft safety. I took this picture while standing under the Arch so it was a long way off.

I regret that I will not be able to make comments on others' posts from Tuesday evening, probably until Wednesday evening. We're getting a new telephone/Internet/television bundle at home and until they finish installing it we we have no web service. You would laugh to see me writing this post while sitting in my car outside of a cafe with free WiFi. The show must go on.
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Around The Overlook

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Scenes from Saturday's dedication of the new Mississippi River overlook and park.

Above is the Gateway Geyser, which has been in this location for twelve years. Most St. Louisans are unaware of it because is is only on for 15 minute periods during the warmer months. You can't see it from almost anywhere except right under the Arch and the neighborhood in East St. Louis. The water can rise over 190 meters, as high as the Arch, but it does so only occasionally. The height of the plume is limited by local wind speed and a general aviation airport located nearby. Very cool when it's on blast, though.

The first picture below is me at the edge of the overlook. The park district had a photgrapher and printers for anyone who wanted a souvenir of the opening. The composite below is comprised of a security guard on a Segway (there is lots of 24/7 security), Mayor Alvin Parks of East St. Louis speaking at the dedication, a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch interviewing visitors to the top and a closer view of the structure itself.

Off to Kansas City tonight and north-central Kansas tomorrow to see my wife's family. I bet there will be a picture of a cornfield soon.