Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0206Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of water running through a portion of a dam. Above the image "T88 (Star)" is printed, below the image "29582T The Great Wilsonam at Muslce Shoals, Alabama." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
29562
WILSON DAM AT MUSCLE SHOALS, ALABAMA
The huge structure before us is the greatest concrete dam in the world. The Wilson Dam extends across the Tennessee River between Florence and Sheffield, Alabama. We are looking at if from Florence, at the northern end, with the spillway and floodgates nearest at hand and the power house visible in the distance, at the southern end. At this point the river reaches the foot of a series of shallows and rapdis known as Muscle Shoals, which extend for 37 miles up the stream, having a fall of 134 feet in that distance. For many years projects were discussed for utilizing the immense waterpower which oculd be made avaliable here but no development was undertaken until the period of the World War, when the urgend demand for nitrates for us in the manufacture of explosives caused the Government to begin the construction of the dam to operate nitrate plants at Sheffield by hydro-electric power. Though far from completed at the time of the armistice, work on the dam was pushed after the war and it was finished in 1926. The structure is 4,500 ft. long, 140 ft. high and 105 ft. thick at the base and is contains more than 1,350,000 cu. yds. of masonry, while its nearest competitor in size - the Assuan Dam in the Nile, Egypt - contains 1,179,00 cu. yds. The power house at the Wilson dam in 1926 held eight turbines generating 260,000 horsepower but it is designed to eventually accommodate 18 turbines generating 612,000 horse power. The dam itself has already cost $51,000,000 Supplemental consturtion, to increas its capacity and to improve navigation through muscle Shoals, has and will cost a great deal in addition to this sum.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection