Looking WNW (downstream) from Indiana bank toward Wave Rock.
<p>Wave Rock (or what remains of it) is the distant rock slab in the center of the photo, beyond and to the right of the 2 fishing boats. Wave Rock, together with Willow Point (a little farther downriver on the Indiana side), once formed a turbulent whirlpool called the Big Eddy during high water. This was a major obstacle for boats trying to pass through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_of_the_Ohio_National_Wildlife_Conservation_Area" class="extiw" title="w:Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area">Falls of the Ohio</a> (bypassing the locks on the Kentucky side). In October 1899, Wave Rock and Willow Point were dynamited, completing the clearance of the Indiana (or Indian) Chute and allowing coal tows and others to more easily "shoot the Falls" when the river was high enough.
[See <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Portals/64/docs/Ops/Navigation/TriumphAtTheFalls.pdf">[1]</a> by Leland R. Johnson and Charles E. Parrish
(Louisville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Kentucky, 2007), p. 194]
</p><p>In theory, boats could pass through the Falls during high water up until the current version of the dam (which has no navigable pass) was built in the early 1960s. But I wonder how often this happened after 1921, when the 600x110 foot Lock 41 (later named after engineer William McAlpine, who managed its design and construction) was opened.
</p><p>Goose Island dike, with gaps, in distance.
</p><p>See a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_alden/17477706043">labelled diagram of the Falls of the Ohio</a>
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Ohio River mile 605.
lower gauge = 13 feet.
Clarksville, Indiana.
27-Dec-1994.
.
file # 94L029.
72 MB Photo CD # 4, img0004.
scanned from 6x9 cm Kodachrome.
</p>
JPEG quality 95.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/70020260@N04">William Alden</a> from Louisville, Kentucky, USA
CC BY-SA 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_alden/18099377551/">94L029: Looking downstream at Falls of the Ohio</a>