Barges & Pipes—Pictures And Thoughts

Above is a picture of a barge loaded with pipes. The barge is in the Houston Ship Channel back in 1939. The photo was taken by Russell Lee.

Here is information about Russell Lee. He took pictures for a New Deal agency and was later a professor of photography at the University of Texas.  

I like the picture because it looks like such a quiet scene. I used to enjoy seeing barges coming up the Ohio River whenever I was a few miles out of town from home in Cincinnati. Especially in the summer. While I’m not certain that life on a barge is really so nice, it just seemed so quiet to be moving up and down the river past the trees on the shore and past the small towns.  

Pipes are basic to transporting something from one place to another. (Though in the picture above it is the pipes themselves that are being transported.)  Pipes have been used for a long time. Below is a picture of lead pipes from ancient Rome. 

Some parts of the world apparently worship pipes. Below is a statue of water pipes in Mytishchi, Russia.

Here is a video about pipelines from Rome to the current day from How Stuff  Works.

Barges are basic as well. Below is the Japanese painting Barges on the Yotsugi-dori Canal. I’d much rather be riding in the barge than pulling it along. This painting is one of 100 Views Of Edo by Ando Hiroshige.  These paintings were made between 1856 and 1858. Please click here to see all 100 views.

Here is a good video on barges from How Stuff Works.  

Below you see a picture of barges gone wild. Here is information about the so-called 1985 Election Day Flood on the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. This was the flood that caused the barges below to go wild.

I think barges and pipes are interesting to consider. We often hear in life that the journey is as important as the destination. For the stuff we use in our lives, it is with barges and pipes that these things reach us.

Texas Progressive Alliance Round-Up

Above is the city flag of Corpus Christi. I like it because it has a sea bird on the flag. Corpus Christi is a great place to spend a weekend. Here is a link to all the many things you can do in Corpus Christi.  

Below is the most recent weekly round-up of Texas Progressive Alliance blogs.

How would Republicanshandle a pandemic? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows. They’d hunker down. Get out their guns and shoot anybody with a runny nose.

After a record 3 weeks without a post in his six years of blogging, Easter Lemming has a very brief round-up of the Pasadena elections.

Off the Kuff writes about the resolution to impeach Judge Sharon Kelleras submitted by Rep. Lon Burnam, which received a committee hearing last week.

Vince at Capitol Annex tells the sad story of how a fundamentalist “historian” and evangelist who believes that hurricanes are God’s punishment on society for tolerating gay citizens will guide the writing of Texas’ new social studies standards. If you thought Darwin versus Don McLeroy was a train wreck, wait until it is the treatment of American Indians, what labor unions have done for America, Islam, women’s suffrage, 9/11, the free enterprise system, and the civil rights movement versus David Barton. First one who catches one of the new “experts” complaining about too much information about minorities in textbooks wins a prize!

WCNews at Eye On Williamsonposted this week on the latest transportation funding scheme the Lege came up with … a “transportation bank”: Texas Transportation Revolving Fund?.