The Drawdown - South
The next area that I will cover is the south side of the SAB. There are a few interesting
things to look at on the south side, but that is about as much as I have ever done. I think
we tried fishing a few times from the banks just below the steam plant, but we never had much
luck.
There are some interesting things to see though. There is a single pier left from the an old iron bridge
that was torn down and the metal was used in WWII. There is also a bar that is almost always full of
ducks or geese. Sometimes even an eagle.
If you are interested in architecture, you can see the steam plant that looks like a fort with giant smoke stacks.
Or at night you can see the new I-35 bridge (it is the one lit up in blue light) that was built after the previous bridge collapsed in 2008. If
you look hard enough you can also see THE U of M campus.
So take a look at the pics. You can see bigger versions by clicking them.
There used to be a an older iron truss bridge just south of the SAB. The old pier has been there forever. Unfortunately I don't have two shots of it from the top of the bridge from the same angle. Still you can see the erosion that has been occurring under the water line. The other problem with the picture from the drawdown is that it was taken as it was getting dark. You can still see it though.
The same old pier can be seen from the bottom of the bridge. This might be a better angle for comparison. You can really see the erosion that has been taken place for years and years. The "normal" pic is also taken in the winter when the water is running lower than usual. In the spring and summer the water would have been up even higher.
It may be hard to tell that these two pics are of the same place. The darkness and different angles make it hard to do a comparison. Just south of one of the piers of the SAB is a sandbar (ok, rockbar) that has been there forever. In the drawdown picture you can see the logs on the right side. The sandbar has had a few logs stranded on it and is a favorite resting spot for ducks and geese. It also isn't uncommon to see a bald eagle sitting on one of the branches of the logs waiting for a dead fish to float by.
These two pictures are of the south side of the SAB just in front of THE U of M's steam power plant.
These two pictures are of one of the most interesting things I found while wandering around during the drawdown. It looks like there was an old dock that had been build who knows when? With the water down so low people could see it again. But for all the years since the dam has been in place it has been covered by water. Who knows what else has been covered up with rocks and mud in that area?
Below are a lot more pictures of the drawdown from around the East end of the bridge. You can see bigger versions by clicking them.