Lock and Dam No. 16 Historic District

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

Lock and Dam No. 16 Historic District is a lock and dam complex in Muscatine, Iowa, built from 1933 to 1937.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with national-level significance in transportation, engineering, maritime history, commerce, economics, military, social history, politics and government, and conservation. Its period of significance runs from 1933 to 1948, reflecting construction that began in 1933 and the lock's opening for navigation on July 10, 1937. Design credit goes to Herbert G. McCormick and the Central Engineering Company of Davenport, Iowa.

Physical character

The complex includes a navigation lift lock with an auxiliary lock and air-lock vestibule, plus a nonnavigable dam, ogee spillway and guard wall. Its gates and machinery are steel, including German-style nonsubmersible roller gates and Type Ib Tainter gates, while the lock's concrete walls rest on timber pile foundations. The central control station has brick walls and an asphalt roof, and jib cranes and traveling mooring kevels serve the lock walls.

Historical context

The lock opened for navigation on July 10, 1937, as part of the Upper Mississippi River 9-Foot Navigation Project, and it has stayed in continuous use for that project since. The Army Corps of Engineers extended the lock's upstream guide walls by about 400 feet in 1951, and the lock and dam's 50-year rehabilitation in 1993 added a new generator, compressor and power transformer on the esplanade.