Pole / pylons in Minneapolis

[Flash Bristow]

From a friend who was obviously using his camera phone - the quality is a bit ropey but I just had to share these tripods with you!

Apparently:
"They're linked to the hydro-plant which is on an island next to the falls
in the Mississippi there. Apparently they're the only falls in the entire
length of the river."





There are a few more similar snaps in gorge.org/pylons/minneapolis/ - including the full pictures from which the details above were taken.

[Flash Bristow]

Ooh - here's Google maps street view of another tripod. Takes a while to load but interesting once it does so: clicky!

Given that only two legs are used for carrying wires, I wonder why they made it into some strange three legged beast. Generally people try to make pylons / poles as subtle as possible, but this is rather more like a sculpture to my mind!

My friend said he thinks he saw three of them (but was busy trying to snap them for me!)

[Dr Fortran]

There just seem to be three of the tripod-like poles in the upper photo:

Google maps links:

maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=7.973389,17.138672&ie=UTF8&ll=44.978036,-93.252504&spn=0.000582,0.001046&t=h&z=20&iwloc=addr
maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=7.973389,17.138672&ie=UTF8&ll=44.9813,-93.25251&spn=0.000582,0.001046&t=h&z=20&iwloc=addr
maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=7.973389,17.138672&ie=UTF8&ll=44.98259,-93.254098&spn=0.000582,0.001046&t=h&z=20&iwloc=addr

I wonder if they're a funky design specifically for a prominent river crossing?

Similarly, the triple-circuit arched ones seem to be on a line that runs rather prominently along the east bank of the Mississippi. Start here and follow the line west and then north:

maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=7.973389,17.138672&ie=UTF8&ll=44.982819,-93.255974&spn=0.000582,0.001046&t=h&z=20

The high resolution photography gives out fairly soon, but you can still see the line if you zoom out a bit. It stays on the M-shaped poles for a bit then appears to run along a street on paired single poles either side (can't see the conductors so can't tell how it's arranged) it gets back to the river on twin poles like this:

maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=7.973389,17.138672&ie=UTF8&ll=45.001595,-93.272762&spn=0.002329,0.004184&t=h&z=18

It cuts away from the river a bit north of that (at a rather impressive looking angle structure) and that's as far as I followed it.

Google maps is cool.

[Dr Fortran]

Nov 28, 2008 9:55:12 GMT -5 Flash Bristow said:

Ooh - here's Google maps street view of another tripod. Takes a while to load but interesting once it does so: clicky!

That seems to be the first of the three tripods I linked in plan view.

Here's the M-poles, looking towards the power station site:

maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=44.98376,-93.257765&panoid=AshgpV-ne3xJfmohSZFCDg&cbp=12,148.47483545093775,,0,5&ll=44.983181,-93.259558&spn=0,359.991632&z=17

Here's the street with the poles:

maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=44.996108,-93.27068&panoid=mCTzWd-qZRwn08_enGbMFw&cbp=12,334.6967180126207,,0,-17.5&ll=44.996108,-93.27068&spn=0,359.995816&z=18

And here's the angle structure:

maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=45.004331,-93.271428&panoid=WOqKNHtrutRh3Kr2gY0yDA&cbp=12,261.6427307021461,,0,-17.5&ll=45.00422,-93.271496&spn=0,359.995816&z=18

[poyks]

Amazing! I knew my interests in pylons and "War of the Worlds" would cross eventually!