Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Fall Colors (large thread)

My wife and I decided to take a short Road trip to Northwestern Pennsylvania this weekend. Our primary reason was to return to her home town of Saint Mary's. a town, that in it's hay day was the leader in the carbon industry. Nestled in the mountains of Elk county this little town has much to offer in the way of photography. I have posted many shots in the past few years in and around this town. This weekend on the way home however, we went a different direction, heading into towns such as Galeton and Wellsboro. Most famous to Pennsylvania hunters.
Also most famous as the starting points for overlooking the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

Starting by overlooking Saint Mary's on a cold crisp morning.





Moving on to the town of Austin. At one time this town ceased to exist and hundreds of people died when this Dam broke. (can any engineers tell me why it broke?) The answer was engineering screw up. The Dam was built backwards. (that's right backwards, as you can see by the way it broke, the angle the dam was built is backward, causing catastrophic results.)





Now on to the Grand Canyon.

West face.



East face With a C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corp. camp at the bottom)
The C.C.C. built most of the road systems in this area and also planted and built the Grand overlooks for our State park systems from 1933-1942)













Thanks for looking.

[RoxnDox]

Originally Posted by Photo Tramp

My wife and I decided to take a short Road trip to Northwestern Pennsylvania this weekend. Our primary reason was to return to her home town of Saint Mary's. a town, that in it's hay day was the leader in the carbon industry. Nestled in the mountains of Elk county this little town has much to offer in the way of photography. I have posted many shots in the past few years in and around this town. This weekend on the way home however, we went a different direction, heading into towns such as Galeton and Wellsboro. Most famous to Pennsylvania hunters.
Also most famous as the starting points for overlooking the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

Starting by overlooking Saint Mary's on a cold crisp morning.

Moving on to the town of Austin. At one time this town ceased to exist and hundreds of people died when this Dam broke. (can any engineers tell me why it broke?) The answer was engineering screw up. The Dam was built backwards. (that's right backwards, as you can see by the way it broke, the angle the dam was built is backward, causing catastrophic results.)



Thanks for looking.

Beautiful pics of beautiful countryside... According to Austin Dam, Pennsylvania: The Sliding Failure of a Concrete Gravity Dam -- MARTT et al. 11 (1): 61 -- Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, though, the reason for the dam failure was that the dam itself slid across the underlying bedrock on a weak layer, not because hte thing was built backwards. An engineering screwup, but a different kind

They do angle these sorts of dams as shown (downstream being to the left) so that the wider edge of the base helps "push" the dam down against the bedrock and hold it in place, rather than pushing against the face of the dam and trying to "tip it over". Google "gravity dam" for more info if anyone really wants

Jim (what can I say, I'm one of the guys doing water stuff for a living)

[vievetrick]

Great shots and colors are great. I really like #1 did you do some PP work on that? Looks like you had a fun trip and glad we got to see it from your lens. Check you PM I sent a quick note.

[Photo Tramp]

Originally Posted by CycloneBandDad

Beautiful pics of beautiful countryside... According to Austin Dam, Pennsylvania: The Sliding Failure of a Concrete Gravity Dam -- MARTT et al. 11 (1): 61 -- Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, though, the reason for the dam failure was that the dam itself slid across the underlying bedrock on a weak layer, not because hte thing was built backwards. An engineering screwup, but a different kind

They do angle these sorts of dams as shown (downstream being to the left) so that the wider edge of the base helps "push" the dam down against the bedrock and hold it in place, rather than pushing against the face of the dam and trying to "tip it over". Google "gravity dam" for more info if anyone really wants

Jim (what can I say, I'm one of the guys doing water stuff for a living)

According to google you are completely right. However to the local town folk that lived through this nightmare, back when this dams failure was being investigated they found that the dam should have sloped the opposite way. After seeing this first hand at the site I tend to agree that if it had been built right and the bedrock problem found before the build, no one would have died and the dam would still be operational today. The company that this dam was built to power was destroyed and the remains are still there about 2 miles down stream. I wish I could have gotten pictures of it as well but there was no place to get off the road and get out to photograph it. I'm hoping to get back to this site again in the spring and hope to get pictures of what is left of the power plant and the buildings that housed the business.

[RoxnDox]

Originally Posted by Photo Tramp

According to google you are completely right. However to the local town folk that lived through this nightmare, back when this dams failure was being investigated they found that the dam should have sloped the opposite way. After seeing this first hand at the site I tend to agree that if it had been built right and the bedrock problem found before the build, no one would have died and the dam would still be operational today. The company that this dam was built to power was destroyed and the remains are still there about 2 miles down stream. I wish I could have gotten pictures of it as well but there was no place to get off the road and get out to photograph it. I'm hoping to get back to this site again in the spring and hope to get pictures of what is left of the power plant and the buildings that housed the business.

Yeah, it's a very unfortunate fact of life that we humans learn a lot more from catastrophic events like this than we do from our successful projects... They know a lot more nowadays about shear stress and the various failure modes that are possible than they did when this dam was built. And I'd say that there are a lot more inspections and oversight nowadays too, which would likely have prevented the dam from ever going into operation to begin with. Seems from some of the reports after the fact that they also did a poor job with their concrete mixing and setting of various parts of the dam itself.

It'll be intersting to see any pics you get of the downstream area. I for one am glad you shared these ones despite the origin...

Jim

[Photo Tramp]

Originally Posted by vievetrick

Great shots and colors are great. I really like #1 did you do some PP work on that? Looks like you had a fun trip and glad we got to see it from your lens. Check you PM I sent a quick note.

Hi Pat,
I did very little PP work to any of the shots. On My first shot I did adjust the shadows, and highlights just a little. The shot was taken at Dawn on Saturday morning and I needed to get just a little more light than what I had. Some of the Eastern rim shots that were taken also had to be adjusted a little, mostly for the same reason, Plus with the mist that was burning off in the valley causing the haze it was hard to get exactly the right lighting.

[roentarre]

David.

This is a large volume of images with fabulous colour of grandeous scale. You definitely captured the natural beauty of the region.

Thanks for sharing these images!