Illinois River & Waterway shipping locks at Starved Rock,Illinois. John Roberts Tug Boat

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During the 1920s and '30s, the Army Corps of Engineers built 8 dams and locks to create a navigable "stairway" that drops 163 feet over the course of some 330 miles, linking the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Each dam in the Illinois Waterway produces a long, narrow lake with a nine-foot-deep navigation channel, while the locks provide river traffic with safe passage around the dams by raising or lowering the vessels to the next "step" in the stairway. Radio transmissions between boats and the Starved Rock Lock are carried over a public address system, making the locking-through process interesting both to see and hear.

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Size: 5120px × 3427px
Location: Starved Rock Dam & Lock, Utica, Illinois, USA
Photo credit: © Chuck Eckert / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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