Bayou Plaquemine Lock - Plaquemine, LA
N 30° 17.533 W 091° 14.033
15R E 669850 N 3352487
Very fine retired lock facility, which was used until the mid 1950's to connect Bayou Plaquemine to the Mississippi River. Lockhouse now houses a museum.
Waymark Code: WM55ZK
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 11/16/2008
Views: 3
Very awesome structure. Pics do not due it justice. From a firsthand visit to the museum, I learned that the locks were opened in 1909. They took 14 years to complete. It shut down in the mid 1950's, mainly due to the size of boats and tows were too long to make the first sharp bend in the Bayou Plaquemine. There were having to break tows apart and lock them through a barge at a time. The Lockhouse is made of a type of brick that has a light reflective property. The stone came from Italy. The entire area has been turned into a community park area, with fishing allowed, walking trails and a "soap Box derby" runway on the levee. Ther has recently been put in place pumps, which will allow (Mississippi) river water to flow into the bayou, creating a current. As of this waymarking, they were not operational yet. Thats firsthand data, here is some other history I found
here .
Bayou Plaquemine's importance as a main water artery to the Mississippi River was evidenced as early as 1770, when the Spanish militia in Louisiana, through its commandant and the local magistrate of the communities of Opelousas and St. Martin's of Attakapas, Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire, sent his most experienced engineer, Louis Landry, to survey the possibilities of opening Bayou Plaquemine to Navigation.
The Bayou became a key link between the Mississippi River Valley and communities in Southwest Louisiana and Texas.
Construction of the Plaquemine Lock was begun in 1895, but not completed until 1909. The dramatic story of the building of this huge structure, spanning 15 long years, reads like a novel, interspersed with human and technical developments that stagger the imagination. Bayou Plaquemine served as the Eastern gateway system from 1909 until 1954, when the lock structure was judged to be inadequate, and a new lock structure built in Port Allen, La.
Millions of tons of cargo being transported over the waters of Louisiana have traveled the waters of Bayou Plaquemine to be locked through the Plaquemine Lock during its long, historic service. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, possess in their records ample documentation of the significant role that the Bayou and its Lock played in early commerce in Louisiana, and the settlement of people.
Bayou Plaquemine is inseparably connected with the Plaquemine Lock structure, itself an engineering and architectural gem. The U.S. Government Reservation at Plaquemine occupies a 14-acre area. The lock structure was designed by Colonel George W. Goethals of the United States Corps of Engineers who later served as chief engineer of the construction of the Panama Canal Lock, as well as the zone’s first governor. Because of the distinguished stature of this man the Lock structure bears historical influence, but above all, stands as one of the earliest major Lock structures in Louisiana, the United States, and the world, and enjoyed the distinction, upon completion of construction, of having the highest fresh-water lift of any Lock in the world. It also possessed a unique engineering plan which enabled the lock to operate on a gravity-flow principle until this operational feature was modernized and pump installed.
There is also ALOT more history found on the internet.