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Buy the "Great Projects" videos and companion book at ShopPBS. |
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The Bonnet Carre Spillway In 1927, thirty miles above New Orleans, at a place called Bonnet Carre, Jadwin built one of the first Mississippi spillways. Set back from the river, the spillway ran parallel to the riverbank for a mile and a half, with some 350 gates made of rough-hewn timbers called "needles." When a dangerous flood crest approached, cranes could pull needles up and out of the spillway. These gates would skim the crest of the river. By early 1931, construction was complete. |
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  How engineers contained and controlled the Colorado and Mississippi rivers. Thomas Edison lights up New York City; Sam Insull brings power to Chicago; and TVA electrifies rural America Constructing the George Washington Bridge Putting a major highway under Boston  |
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