Browsing: Ohio River

Cruising Life
By

The Onboard Life of an Ohio River Tugboat Captain, in a Photo Essay from Reuters

Here’s a beautiful photo essay from Reuters about the life of a tugboat captain on the Ohio River, as well as about all the changes taking place in communities along the river itself. It’s about Joe Gray, the captain of the 126-foot-long tug Tommy H, who grew up along the Ohio River and started working as a towboat deckhand alongside his brothers in 1988, when times were good. Gray is now 46 and works 28-day stints on the river between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cairo, Illinois. He earns $45 an hour, and often has to maneuver his tug and barges, which…

Cruising Life
By

As Delays Pile Up, An Aging, Heavily-Used Ohio River Lock and Dam Turn Into “A Ticking Time Bomb”

You may want to rethink any plans to cruise down the Ohio River any time soon after reading this. Lock and Dam 52, in a corner of southern Illinois near the mouth of the Ohio River, get more traffic than any other spot on the inland waterway. Built in 1929, the 600-foot chamber is desperately in need of repairs; the lock walls are cracking and sagging, the hydraulic pipes are paper thin, the seals are leaking and metal is rusting. The average delay this fall was between 15 and 20 hours. The lockmaster says the only thing keeping it going…