Photo of the Day 8/11/06

Aha! A little bit better photo of a concrete canalway telephone pole along the Hennepin Canal. This is the original one I had posted. After doing a little digging, I've found that these poles that line the canalway were used to carry only telephone wires (not electricity as I had wondered) . They used the phones to communicate between the different locktender's houses that used to be along the locks - warning of barges on the way downstream or relaying general problems and status. Only a few of those houses still stand (one is along my usual route, as a matter of fact). The poles evidently weigh 75lbs each. What I wonder is...were the poles molded first, the buried in the ground? Or were concrete forms driven into the ground and the height of the pole, then the forms removed for the above-ground portion? I have no understanding these sorts of things at all!