ROLLING ON THE RIVER

The family did something a little different on Saturday. We took a ride on one of the riverboats, not just the usual two hour, here's how boring it looks outside of downtown trips, but a five hour journey through the first lock on the Mississippi, which is north of here, up to the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri. (The grade is so flat from here to New Orleans, dropping 450 feet / 137 meters over a wiggly course of 1,278 miles / 2,056 kilometers, that there is no need for  locks.)

The boat makes a pretense of being a stern wheeler for old-timey effect. When it got into the lock and had to so some fine maneuvering, it was obvious that there were propellers underneath. 

The day was gray and drizzly so outdoor photography was not at its best. There are still some other images worth a look.            

St. Louis Central Library Reopening: 19th Century Art

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There is a lot of interesting art around the restored library. No idea how much of this was on display before the project began. I could only shoot parts of what's now on the walls because of the crowds.

The first piece is a illustration of the downtown waterfront in 1855. Almost no resemblance to what it looks like today. The only link is the dome in the center, the top of what we now call The Old Courthouse. All of the surrounding warehouses and tenements were cleared out for the Arch's park in the middle 1960s. 

I didn't see any date on the second picture. Propeller screws replaced paddle wheels for propulsion some time in the 19th Century. Any St. Louisan knows that the building in the background is the Anheuser-Busch brewery and that opened in 1852. 

We will go a century forward tomorrow.