A Dam Fine Walk

[crfriend]

Late in the 19th Century, the City of Boston manipulated the Massachusetts state legislature into building a dam and reservoir which was to drown the center of what would become my adopted home town almost a century later. This utterly destroyed the local industry which depended on the river and forever changed the character of the town; what was a vibrant entity of its own became a suburb of Worcester.

Orientation here, provided by Google Maps.

The photographs below are reminders from the day when the citizenry took great pride in their municipal works projects, and the architecture of said works reflected that pride. There is enough of this architecture around, usually in places that you'd never see it if you stayed on the beaten path, that it's actually rather stunning to see. I need to carry my camera with me on my daily commute more often.

The entire area around the dam and reservoir were once parks up until the convulsion of 2001-09-11 caused such paranoia that many of these landmark structures were locked behind chain-and-barbed-wire fences. However, twice per year, the successor entity to the "Metropolitan District Commission" (MDC) in Boston opens the grounds up to pedestrian traffic, and that's how I got these photos.

I wasn't the only one out there today wearing a skirt, but I was the only guy so attired.

This is the view looking northwestward across the top of the dam:

02s-Across_the_top.jpg

The green patina on the railings should give some clue to what it would have looked like when new and polished.

No major waterworks project was ever considered complete around here without a fountain, and this structure was no exception. Here's the fountain viewed from "on high":

03-The_fountain_from_above.jpg

The structure just visible in the lower-left of frame used to be a power station. The original machinery is still installed therein, but likely hasn't rotated in this author's lifetime. The building was closed today, but since this is a twice-yearly event, I suspect I'll be petitioning the powers that be to grab an interpreter or two and open it to those who are interested.

Most dams have a "high side" and a "low side"; this is the water level on the "high side" (compare to the views looking at the "low side):

05s-Water_on_the_high_side.jpg

Of note is that this is the either the largest or 2nd largest hand-build (human and animal labour) on the planet.

A railway runs through it. Or, to be more correct, one used to until the line was pretty badly wrecked during the big 1938 hurricane and was abandoned. This would later become the "rail trail" that I have commented on in the past. This is the near the top of the spillway with the old masonry railroad bridge crossing it:

08s-Looking_down_the_spillway.jpg

The original rail line ran through the valley and the old center of town. The old roadbed is under about 80 feet of water where the old center of town used to be. Relocating it was a bit of an achievement.

I admit to breaking a rule or three and went around a fence to get the following shot. Railways, as is well known, don't like sharp grades much, and dropping by 100' or so in less than a 10th of a mile is unheard of. So a bridge -- as high as the dam itself -- was constructed to carry the railway across the river to the other bank, and then directly into a tunnel because the other side was higher:

12s-From_the_old_RR_high_bridge_abutment.jpg

The tunnel portal is just visible in the original; it may not be in this one unless you look very carefully.

It's a hundred and eighty-seven steps down to the valley below the dam where I took this shot for reference as to just how big a project this was:

20s-The_dam_from_the_north_bank.jpg

Yes, the small figures in the shot are people. If that thing broke whilst I was where I took the shot I'd be looking at 65 billion (yes, that's a "B") US gallons of water coming at me.

Finally, credit to who got me there, and who remained safely above water-level:

22s-The_new_steed.jpg

The venue was actually fairly well packed with people and parked cars. I had to actually parallel-park the new kid, and I hadn't parallel-parked anything in perhaps 20 years. It took two tries, but no dents or scrapes, so everything's good. I got lucky; the stack of parked cars stretched back more than a mile into Clinton Center.

[Tor]

That looks like fine fun to see indeed. A pity one must be capable of getting to the location at one of a very few times in order to enjoy it. Quite a bit of water there, too, and as you allude to, quite dangerous in the event of a failure of the dam - oh, the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide.

Thanks for the pictures that we can enjoy, even if getting there in the flesh is outside of reasonable possibility.

[john62]

Why don't you parallel park in the US? Here in Oz most parking is parallel unless in a shopping centre or designed parking building.

John

[crfriend]

Why don't you parallel park in the US? Here in Oz most parking is parallel unless in a shopping centre or designed parking building.

I rather suspect that comes down to me avoiding, by various means, places where I'd be forced to park so. It's not down to incompetence behind the wheel as today's experience showed, but it's not my favourite way to put my car into a slot. (There's a problem here that sometimes others will crowd a vehicle so that it's impossible to "escape" from a slot until one, or both, of the "encroachers" have departed (and if they're also "parked in", well, gridlock develops); I made sure that I wasn't doing that when I alighted.)

The USA is sometimes a very uncivilized place. I do my level best to not make it any more so.

"Nose-in" (or "stern in") is my preferred method for parking my cars.

[john62]

Well in the 30 years of driving here I have never been locked in by other cars, so maybe drivers here are bit more courteous, well some of the time anyway.

John

[r.m.anderson]

Cardinal Rule of Parallel Parking - - - If you can get into the parking space - you bloody well will be able to get yourself out "CAVET/PROVISO" *****

***** After you have settled into the space the car in front of you and the one in back of you do not move to change the dimensions of the space.

When I took driver training in high school to get my license you could fail the parallel parking and one other small infraction and still get your license.
Fortunately my driver trainer had his trainees practice and practice time and time again - resulting in his students always got their license and always
passed the parallel parking portion of the test. Thus you could miss using your signal for a turn a couple times and not stay in the correct lane after
making a turn and still have a cushion to pass - but fail parallel park and one more strike and it was back to the classroom. Not happening with my
instructor !

I like the TV commercial that was on a few years back - the driver traveling in the opposite direction of the parking space does some fancy double declutching -
down shifting - accelerates - jabbing the brakes and puts the car into a left hand broadside slide right into the open parking space. WHEW that was something -
wonder how many times he had to do it to get it just right or did they have the two cars he parked between positioned remotely like the green/blue screen the
weather man stands in front of - all smoke and mirrors ! LOL !
# # #

Thanks for posting the photos crfriend and glad that you were able to get them the two days of the year the dam is open to the public.

[Sinned]

Here in England parking ( your parallel parking ) has been a compulsory of the driving test and some ( like me ) are proud of the tight spaces that can be got into. The correct method is to pull ahead of the space parallel to the next vehicle and with a reasonable gap between them and to reverse into the parking space applying PLENTY of lock and easing off the lock as you reverse in. I once experienced my father reversing a mini ( yes the original Austin Mini ) into a space barely a couple of feet longer than the Mini itself. Lots of lock, forward, straighten, lock, backward, straighten, .... ). Going in nose first is a LOT more difficult and reversing in is reasonably easy once you've got the hang of it.

Having said that, why the locking up of the amenity for 99% of the time. Doesn't make sense.

[crfriend]

The correct method is to pull ahead of the space parallel to the next vehicle and with a reasonable gap between them and to reverse into the parking space applying PLENTY of lock and easing off the lock as you reverse in.

That's the method taught here, and it works very well. On my first try, I committed the error of starting the cut-to-lock a wee bit early and wound up on the kerb before I should have; yes, I am out of practice.

Another issue with modern cars is that there is usually no indication as to where the nose and tail really are. If one looks at the geometry of my new one, one can immediately tell that I can have precisely no visual indication of where the thing begins and ends; I get to guess, and, being a rather conservative type, tend to leave room for error. It's safer that way for all involved. Earlier in the day when Sapphire and I had lunch, I pulled the car into a parking-spot nose-first and inched up to a stone wall and stopped at what I thought from inside was a couple of inches distant. In point of fact, after alighting I noticed about two feet of space. (I'm still learning about the new one.)

I like the TV commercial that was on a few years back - the driver traveling in the opposite direction of the parking space does some fancy double declutching [...]

That was cribbed from a classic scene in The Blues Brothers and was absolutely a brilliant piece of work by the stunt-driver. This was in the pre-CGI days when either the thing was real or it didn't get onto celluloid.

[skirtyscot]

I once sat at an outside table of a Parisian cafe and the entertainment was provided by drivers parking in unbelievably small spaces. As a car pulled up in front of a space, it looked just impossible to fit the car in. But they all managed it first time. Even as the driver walked away I was left wondering how they had done it. Bumper parking, years of practice and nowhere else to park!

[Big and Bashful]

I remember the old Reginald Molehusband advert in th UK from when I was a child, teaching the parking technique mentioned above. I freely admit that twenty five years of country life has left me being not much good at parralel parking. It just doesn'r happen around here so I am totally out of practice. Driving a Shogun doesn't help, looking out of the back, I just cannot see the bonnet of the car behaind and tend to be very overly cautious when reversing up to the front of a car, I find the same problem in carparks, I can revers to 1/2 inch of a wall behind me but tend to stop with more than 18" behind me to a car behind. I tried getting parking sensors fitted but that was not practical thanks to the construction of my beast, it's got metal in it!

[Kirbstone]

Depends how modern. Some of the guys I row with drive late reg. (11/12/13) Audis & Beemers, all of which have proximity sensors and a display on the screen as you park.
My rationale is to thump the car behind back a foot or so, then shove the car ahead away another couple of feet, then leave my steed somewhere in the middle & walk off!

Tom.

[crfriend]

Depends how modern. Some of the guys I row with drive late reg. (11/12/13) Audis & Beemers, all of which have proximity sensors and a display on the screen as you park.

Recall that one of my criteria for another vehicle was NO bloody television set embedded in the dashboard. I managed to succeed in at least meeting that one. (I still wound up with "air" (read, "rocket-engine") bags, ABS (which still lock up just fine, mind), and "stability control" (I call the shots here, Sunshine!), none of which I wanted -- especially "air bags".)

My rationale is to thump the car behind back a foot or so, then shove the car ahead away another couple of feet, then leave my steed somewhere in the middle & walk off!

This, in Boston (MA/USA), is known as "parking by ear". In general, it is not accepted practice outside route 128. Inside the "inner beltway" anything goes.

[Big and Bashful]

I do have a mechanical proximity sensor, (a towbar). I try not to use that one though, it could be a bit destructive! It has also been known to hook under an arnco barrier in a multi-storey. The Shogun might have a lot of torque, but it struggled to tow a full car park! At least I made my mark on that one!

[Sinned]

Tm,

Have you seen that scene in Despicable Me where Gru parks his vehicle in front of the house parallel wise and then proceeds to shunt the cars in front and behind several times in just such a fashion as you describe? Priceless!!!!

[skirtyscot]

Carl, you seem to have a very strong aversion to modern gizmos in your car. May I suggest that for your next one you nip over to Pennsylvania and buy second hand from an Amish gentleman?