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Section 5 of 6 · 5 entries
The navigation
The river, told what to do.
A shifting, shallow, sediment-heavy river was turned into a dependable channel by a staircase of locks and dams, and loaded barges still work it. This is the part of the valley that was not described but engineered — pools, training walls, levees, and a town that kept its size because the sorting happened there.
Everything in the navigation
The navigation
The river was made navigable by engineering, and the lock and dam system is why commercial traffic still runs.
Trimble Lock and Dam
One lock and dam on the system, and what a single structure actually does to the river above and below it.
Levees and the bottomland
A river this size floods, and the earthworks that answer it shape where anyone can build.
Eighteen locks, end to end
The whole system taken together: a staircase of pools that turns a shifting shallow river into a dependable channel.
Yards at Fort Smith
Sorting and servicing happened at the town, which is why the town kept its size.