A trip to the fish elevator

Behold the powerful falls at the Holyoke dam. Holyoke Gas and Electric generates power here.

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This dam is a barrier to fish that need to get upstream to spawn. There have been various means of solving this problem, but at present it's a literal elevator, a huge mechanism powered by giant turbines and with great chains that lift boxes of water, packed with fish, up above the falls. Yesterday Wakanomori and I went to see it--a marvelous experience!

It has very cute signposts:


In the informational room, there's a diagram that shows how the elevator works. You can see the giant turbines:



And a tally of how many fish have been lifted: yesterday was a record for American shad. (In the colonial days, they used to say that when the shad were running, you could walk across the Connecticut river on their backs.)



( photos and videos of fish, people watching fish, people fishing, and massive machinery )