I was doing some research on the state archives web site and stumbled across this photo in the Water Resources section.
It appears to be on the Columbia River in the eastern portion of the state. Not sure which state, but once Kent determines north we will know if it is in Washington or not.
Anyone know what this is?
Unknown thing floating in the Columbia(?) River
Portable foot bridge?
Water powered generator?
Unknown thing floating in the Columbia(?) River
> Portable foot bridge?
I think your on to something, though it looks like bigger than a footbridge. Perhaps they are testing a quick-deployment bridge for equipment and small vehicles?
Looks like a conveyor system of some type to me. I'm imagining the "belt" that is visible and supported, continuing under the water, back to shore. Maybe the drive wheel is back on shore and dragging the belt along the bottom. I would think the pontoon in the foreground would need to be anchored to hold tension.
That's at least the story I'd tell at a bar, Cliff Claven-like:-D
Unknown thing floating in the Columbia(?) River
> > Portable foot bridge?
>
> I think your on to something, though it looks like bigger than a footbridge. Perhaps they are testing a quick-deployment bridge for equipment and small vehicles?
I like those ideas. Looks like there is a taut cable straight off the front and another connected off the side. The wheel appears to be locked in place by a horizontal bar near the back but it doesn't have high sides that would likely be needed if the netting was wrapped around the wheel in storage. Seems to me the netting just goes over the wheel and then into the water. It has a pretty defined uniform edge on both sides and I would think that if it were some type of fishing net that spanned out in the water, it wouldn't be so uniform looking. It looks to me like netting with large Ropes on the edges.Beyond those little details I still really don't have a good guess as to what it may be.:'( o.O :bored:
I beleive that is an early pontoon system for a suction dredging operation. The hose, however, is not in place. I have seen these in local gravel pits where the pontoons hold the hose and the entire system can be moved around. Here are photos of a modern-day equivalent.
You might be on to something there Jerry. It is too bad the archives photo is of such low resolution. There is stuff going on in the background that might be helpful.
I changed the gamma in an image editor and can see more of the background, especially if I zoom in with the browser, but it is definitely too low resolution to make it all out.
Bill...
You mean you can't do like they do on CSI and take a blurry low-resolution photo and click the mouse a couple of times and convert it into a razor-sharp image? You must need some different software.
It's Bruce Lee..............:-O
