Dam Replacement Improve
Ohio River Navigation

 In 1929, President Herbert Hoover dedicated the completion of the Ohio River canalization. After half a century of effort, the waterway now had a 9-foot navigable depth through its entire 981 miles extending from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi River. There were 50 dams, creating 50 level navigable pools. Each dam was equipped with a lock that measured 110 feet wide and 600 feet long.

The program for the ceremony read, in part: "The Ohio River has been completely canalized and periodical interruptions to navigation because of low water are of the past . . . . The canalization of the Ohio River is the greatest achievement of its kind in the world.

"Smaller connecting links, where other forms of transportation are impractical, are more intensively utilized, but with the exception of the Panama and the Suez canals, no other natural or artificial watercourse possesses its potentiality."

Even as he expressed pride at the "apparent completion" of the river project, Hoover foresaw that advancing technology and population increase would soon create a need for further development.

Hoover was correct. For not 10 years later the Pittsburgh District, Army Corps of Engineers, began studying the replacement of Locks and Dams 7 through 14 on the Ohio and in 1941, then-District Engineer Ludson Worsham recommended building three high-lift dams with double locks at New Cumberland, Pike Island and Opossum Creek (later named Hannibal Locks and Dam).

War Halts Building and Increases Traffic

Before any action could be taken, however, the United States became involved in World War II and all but urgent construction was halted. Although navigation constructions stopped, river traffic did not.

In 1942, 38 million tons of cargo were moving on the Ohio River on a system that was built to handle 13 million tons and, by 1950, total cargo moved was approaching 49 million tons.

Modernization Planned

The Ohio River Division (renamed Ohio River and Great Lakes Division) of the Army Corps of Engineers planned a major modernization of the river. Nineteen new structures would replace the existing Chanoine wicket dams.

These dams, named for their inventor, Chief Jacque Chanoine of the French Corps of Engineers, consisted of timbers bolted together that somewhat resembled huge wooden ironing boards. Laid flat against masonry foundations during high water, they left an open channel for navigation. During low water, they could be raised on end to form a dam.

Each new dam, with its 23-foot lift, would eliminate at least two wicket dams, reducing operating expenses and cutting the number of lockages along the length of the the Ohio by more than half. Jim Neill, senior engineer at Pittsburgh, explained the need for modernizing the Ohio to Congress in 1953:

"I suggest we consider the Ohio River as a highway -- an industrial highway comparable in importance to some of our interstate highways. Fifty years ago we were designing and building highways which to the best of the designer's ability were laid out to provide for the needs of traffic far into the future. I wonder how many of those highways are adequate for present day needs? I wonder if there are any of the really important ones which have not been rebuilt and perhaps rebuilt again in the past 50 years? Yet it is widely recognized that our highway system falls short of our needs. I think our Ohio River situation is similar."

Pittsburgh District's Role

The Pittsburgh District's part of the project included building three new locks and dams -- New Cumberland, Pike Island and Hannibal. Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery locks and dams would stay in service.

New Cumberland was the first -- ground was broken in November 1955. Four years later in October the towboat Lady Grace was the first to lock through. By 1961, work was completed. New Cumberland Locks and Dam replaced Locks and Dams 7, 8 and 9.

In 1959, work began at Pike Island Locks and Dam. The project was named for a pikefish-shaped island that was submerged during construction of the original dam in 1917. Dedicated by Chief of Engineers William F. Cassidy, Senators Jenning Randolph and Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia), on Sept. 3, 1965, Pike Island replaced Locks 10 and 11.

Seven months later, in 1966, work began on the replacement of Locks and Dams 12, 13 and 14 and, in 1974, the "last element" of Pittsburgh's share of the Ohio River modernization program was completed.

"With their passing an era in the history of navigation will come to a close," former-Pittsburgh District Engineer Col. Max Janairo said of the closing of the old locks and wicket dams at the completion of Hannibal.

Lockmaster William Campbell put down the wickets of Dam 13 on July 10, 1975, and demolition of the old structure, long cursed by operations personnel as "the most cantankerous dam on the river," began.