WEBVTT - Ep. 134: Mississippi River - The Greatest Flood (Part 3) 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.440 For anybody new to this channel, I want to take 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.120 a minute to explain what you're seeing here. We actually 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.280 have two podcasts on this bear Grease feed, and really 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:13.560 almost three. We have our documentary style bear Grease episodes 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.479 like this one, and then every other week we have 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.000 what we call the bear Grease Render, which is me 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.759 and a group of friends discussing and given behind the 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.880 scenes looks into the making of the bear Grease documentary 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.840 style episodes. So that's what bear Grease is all about. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.599 But every Friday we also have Brent Reeves this country 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:37.200 life podcast, which is pure country goal. It's usually under 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.959 thirty minutes long and just a lot of fun. So 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:45.120 this feed isn't exactly simple, but neither are most worthwhile endeavors. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:57.160 I really hope that you enjoy this episode. 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.880 Rivers are absolutely so uncertain, and the more you work 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.480 with them, the more you find out that the data 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.119 that we have is great data. But all this data 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.400 that we take, it's not absolute. It's just snapshawns in time. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.720 The Mississippi Rivers stories are big, turbulent, and touch a 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.520 far reaching swath of human life. Rivers and men have 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.520 always been linked when trying to decide the sequence of 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.080 telling a story. I'll often imagine I'm telling it to 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.000 my kids, what individual stories and emphasis would I tell 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.319 a ten year old, And usually that sequence works for 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.560 the world's brightest minds like you bear grease listeners. So 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.520 I'm being confronted with where to go with this Mississippi 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.160 River series, and I know exactly where I'm going, And 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.280 I would definitely tell my kids about the two Civil 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.680 War vets who pioneered the doctrine of controlling this great river, 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.480 Charles Ellett and Andrew Humphreys, and how they're obsession and 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.080 rivalry shaped the way we managed the river, which led 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.920 to one of the most costly natural disasters in American history. 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.720 It really changed America, you know what disaster that was. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.079 I'd also tell my kids about Mark Twain, America's most 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.040 celebrated writer who was obsessed with being a riverboat captain 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.400 on the Mississippi River. He bottled American culture in his 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.360 writing and sent it to the world. And that natural 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.120 disaster that I was talking about, it was the Great 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.400 Mississippi River Flood of nineteen twenty seven. And you better 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.440 believe that my kids would be on the edge of 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.600 their seats when I told them about it, and so 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.960 I'm going to tell you about it too. We're continuing 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.960 down the river on this third episode of this series, 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:51.240 and like William Faulkner were in pursuit of understanding the world, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.360 I really doubt you're going to want to miss this one. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:59.000 Last three months of nineteen twenty six, the average reading 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.200 on every single river gauge was the highest ever known. 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.600 It didn't take much thinking to figure out that if 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.400 you got any rain of any significance in nineteen twenty seven, 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:13.320 you were going to get a serious flood. 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.480 My name is Klay Nukem, and this is the Bear 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:29.519 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.240 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.400 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:43.800 Presented by FHF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.320 fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:48.560 place as we explore. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.400 Oh me down. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.200 I know this is hard to understand, but I'll explain. 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:09.640 Just listen. 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:25.320 It down down de water WATERJ do down gown. 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.880 That was blues singer Charles Patten singing a song called 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.039 high Water which he recorded in nineteen twenty nine. The 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.560 recording was so rough you have to feel the energy 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.200 of what he's singing about. Some say it sounds like 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.200 the surges of a flood. It's about the flood of 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:54.760 nineteen twenty seven. Here's some of the lyrics. Now looking 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.920 now in leland Lord, the river is rising high. Looky here, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.600 boys around Lee tell me the river is raging high. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.640 I'm going over to Greenville. Bought the tickets. Goodbye, Look 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.920 you here. The water dugout, Lordie. The levee broke rolled 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.599 most everywhere. The water at Greenville and leland Lord, it 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.159 done rose everywhere. I would go down to Rosedale, but 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.239 they tell me there's water there. Backwater at Blitheville backed 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.719 up all around. Backwater at Blitheville don struck Joiner Town. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.480 It was fifty families and children. Tough luck. They can drown. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.240 The water was rising up in my friend's door. The 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.080 water was rising up in my friend's door. The man 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:45.080 said his woman, folk, Lord, we better go, won't be 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:54.080 no more. I want to now read you the words 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:58.400 of John Barry, author of Rising Tide. He has something 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:04.160 to say about rising water. There is no sight like 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.279 the rising Mississippi. One cannot look at it without awe 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.400 or watch it rise and press against the levees without fear. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.640 It grows darker, angrier, dirtier. Eddies and whirlpools erupt on 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:21.120 its surface. It thickens with trees, rooftops the occasional body 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.200 of a mule. Its currents royal, more flow, swifter, pummel, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.839 its banks harder. When a section of riverbank caves into 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.400 the river, acres of land at a time collapse, snapping 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.279 trees with the great crackling sounds of heavy artillery on 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.719 the water, the sound carries for miles. Unlike a human enemy, 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:45.040 the river has no weakness, makes no mistakes, is perfect. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.120 Unlike a human enemy, it will find and exploit any weakness. 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:55.080 To repel it requires an intense, nearly perfect, and sustained effort. 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.920 Major John Lee in the nineteen twenties, the Army District 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.919 engineer in Vicksburg, who in nineteen forty four make the 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.960 Cover of Time as an important World War two general 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.920 observed in physical and mental strain a prolonged high water 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:14.640 fight on threatened levees can only be compared with real war. 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.920 Rivers are perfect. They are the lawmaker, judge, and jury 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.680 of their world, superseding any man concocted laws we could 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.960 pretend to place. On a river, there is no standard 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.360 to judge a river against. It is neither moral nor amoral, 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.040 good or bad, friend or foe. It simply exists and dominates. 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.760 Mankind is always contended with big rivers, and there's a 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:50.080 file in every human's brain holding an instinctual awe when 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.760 you stand on a great river's bank. No data exists 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.239 on how many of our ancestors died crossing big rivers, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.960 but the evolutionary evidence of the trauma of rivers has 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.440 branded us. There are many biblical references that the spiritual 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.480 help granted to the righteous one crossing big water. King 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.120 David's mighty men were commended for bravery for crossing the 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.680 Jordan River during its flood stage, and the prophet Isaiah 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.760 declared to those who are redeemed of the Lord that 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.880 when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.160 over you. River crossings in the Bible are a test 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.080 of faith, and if you cross, there is a new 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.440 life on the other side. In fifteen twenty eight, the 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:37.600 first European inland exploration of what is now America. Happened 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.960 in Florida and was recorded by a Spaniard named Kebeza 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.600 de Vaka. In his journal, he recounted a river crossing 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.880 early in their trip, and he said, quote, that night 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.080 we came to a river that was very deep and 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.720 very wide, in the current very strong. Since we could 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.160 not cross over on rafts, we made a canoe for it. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.760 We took a day to cross it on horseman who 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.080 was called wan Velasquez, not wanting to wait, entered the river. 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.000 The current, which was strong, swepting from the horse. He 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.480 kept hold of the reins, and so he and the 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.360 horse drowned. The Indians of that lord found the horse. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.920 They told us where down the river we would find him, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.760 and so they went for him. His death gave us 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.760 much pain, because until then we had not lost anyone. 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.880 The horse made dinner for many that night. End of quote. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.839 The first recorded European death of what is now America 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:41.120 was from a big, wild, rising, dirty brown river. If 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.360 I was telling this story to my kids, I'd have 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.640 told him that we know more about rivers than we 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:51.160 ever have. But there's such dynamic systems. Our best science 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.520 research and minds aren't fully able to predict their next move. 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.960 This is doctor Bedenharn, a research hydraulic engineer with the 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.440 core of engineers. He probably knows more about rivers than 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.000 anybody in the country. 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.160 If I could have had this interview forty years ago, 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.600 I'd have had much more definitive answers for you. Yeah, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.400 because it was a lot simpler than when I didn't 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.439 realize how much I didn't know. Because the older I've 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.600 gotten and the more I've worked with streams, the more 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:26.360 conservative I've gotten and more cautious really, because oh yeah, absolutely, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:31.160 because rivers are absolutely so uncertain, and the more you 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.079 work with them, the more you find out that the 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.280 data that we have is great data. But that is 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.600 just one snapshot in time of where the river was 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.200 on that date in nineteen fifteen. We surveyed this river. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.439 One month later, it could be completely different. But all 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:55.000 this data that we take is absolute. It's not absolute, 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.160 it's just snapshots in time. I kind of think about 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:02.240 it as an inverted pyramid. The Egyptians, you know, and 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.240 the minds knew what they were doing. They started with 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:08.040 a really solid base and then they built their pyramid up. 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.880 The tip of the pyramid is where we start with 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.080 very little knowledge and then we build from there. You know, 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.920 we get more and more precise. I'm not saying we 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:23.800 cannot understand and make predictions and do designs on rivers, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:28.960 but there is always a pretty large level of uncertainty 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.160 that goes into all our analysis and design that we 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:33.560 have to recognize it. 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:39.839 I appreciate doctor Bidenharn's humility. Like I said, he knows 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.680 more about rivers than anybody, and he's telling us they're 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.920 unpredictable and hard to control. And that's exactly what we're 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.240 talking about. The only constant between man and rivers is 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.720 this uncertainty and the fact that we could be swept away. 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.359 And that's what we're going to talk about on this episode, 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.800 but not before we'd do some review from the last 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.320 two episodes. The Mississippi River starts at Lake of Tasca 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.320 in Minnesota and flows roughly twenty three hundred miles through 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.800 the bread Basket of America to the Gulf of Mexico. 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.560 You need to know this. If we were to count 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.040 its tributary, the Missouri River, it would be the longest 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.840 river in the world. There are approximately twenty four hundred 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.319 miles of non dammed free flowing river. When you combine 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.560 the Missouri and the Mississippi. If you go up the 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.000 Mississippi twelve hundred miles to its first dam and turn 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.920 left on the Missouri and go another twelve hundred miles 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.480 to its first dam, that's how you get the twenty 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.839 four hundred miles, making this one of the longest free 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.319 flowing bodies of water in the world. The Mississippi River 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.240 drains parts of thirty one states, roughly forty one percent 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.439 of America, and also two Canadian provinces. Only the Amazon 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.960 and the Congo Rivers have larger drainage basins. It drops 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:54.640 to the slope, averaging three inches per mile, and has 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.240 an average current speed of nine miles per hour and 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.840 eighteen in a flood. The last four hundred and fifty 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:03.480 miles of the river are below sea level. These stats 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.040 will never get old to an American, and you'll need 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.199 to memorize them if you plan on being the most 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.720 interesting person at camp. This fault, which I'd expect every 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:17.320 bear grease listener to beat. Conversations can be boring and 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.559 lack that gritty, greasy gravitass that's bigger than the weather 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.319 and cannon, Barbie, we're equipping you with the stories. This 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.199 is how the Mississippi River was tamed. That's what we're 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.679 talking about, or at least how they tried to tame it. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.640 Here is our friend John Berry. In the eighteen fifties, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:45.200 the US government commissioned two guys to go create a 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.400 comprehensive report on the Mississippi River, right, which was kind 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.280 of like a Lewis and Clark expedition of the river. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.960 And these guys were pretty unique characters. 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.040 They were, but you know, they were rivals. They weren't 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.360 Lewis and Clark worked together. These guys hated each other's 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:07.079 guts and they wrote entirely different reports. The first engineering 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.520 school in the United States was West Point period. But 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:15.080 the superstar of the civilians was a guy named Charles 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:20.280 Ellett who actually did go to school in France. And 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:25.160 he was a wild man. You know. He built a 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:30.400 catwalk across Niagara Falls and then rode across it in 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:31.040 a chariot. 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.320 That was he was kind of a daredevil. 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:33.440 Oh. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.680 He built one of the first bridges across the Ohio, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:42.040 which incidentally later collapsed. He was killed and during the 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.160 Civil War in front of Vicksburg. He was the captain 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.360 of naval vessel and Union Naval vessel. But Ellett had 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.840 studied the Ohio River, and he was a champion of 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:59.120 the civilians. The Congress divided in appropriation because of this 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.480 rivalry between the Army engineers and the Corps of Engineers 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.640 and the civilians. And this guy named Andrew Adkinson Humphries 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.400 was in the corps, and again they split the appropriation 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.680 and Ellen and Humphries went off to do their own studies, 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.720 which were, as I said, quite different. Humphries was also 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.160 a bit of more than a character. He loved to 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.239 fight in the war. He led a charge in Fredericksburg, 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.200 one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and he 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:39.120 wrote afterwards when he lost almost twenty percent of his 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.520 command in about thirty minutes, that he quote, I felt 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.640 like a young girl at her first ball. He just 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:48.080 loved the glory. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.080 That's kind of what it. It almost feels like these 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.600 guys had to be that way to tackle what they 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:55.440 were trying to tackle. 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.960 Maybe, I mean, they certainly had to have an ego. 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.320 Ellet and Humphries both did their independent studies of the 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.280 river before the Civil War. In the eighteen fifties, following 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.720 a big flood that wrecked the lower Mississippi. Tackling this 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.160 river was a grand feat. It was an exploration of 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:20.440 science relatively new to mankind. Humphries and Elot were both eccentric, brilliant, driven, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:25.040 but egotistical men. Humphries was a decorated Civil War colonel. 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:29.040 He tasted the mud of the river, citing its grittiness 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.720 and taste in his report, and helped plan the trans 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.760 Continental Railroad route. Ellot directly petitioned Abe Lincoln for funding 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.520 to develop warships for the Union Army for the sole 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.840 purpose of ramming and sinking Confederate ships. His ships were 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.800 significant factors in the Union Army's victories on the Mississippi River. 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.760 These guys were wild. I'm not suggesting that these two 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.960 were healthy patterns for manhood. I can't say for sure. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.520 I really don't know their personal lives. But when I 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.640 hear about these guys, it hearkened to mine the historically 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:06.960 low testosterone levels and modern men. It's a fact that testosterone, 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.200 the chemical that makes a man a man, has been dropping, 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.960 which some studies show about one percent per year for decades. 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.040 There are many culprits to this, like obesity, sedentary lifestyles, 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.320 mock estrogens in plastics, which is so real, but some 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:29.840 even believe that it's tight men's underwear anyway, testosterone in 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.160 the rear view mirror. Now, remember that Humphries and Elliott 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.880 were real ballers. Their stories are interesting because they were 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.600 confronting the most complex challenges of their time, and the 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:45.600 river would end up exposing human nature. This is the 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.160 theme of rivers, that's what they do. 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:54.480 Humphries did some really rigorous work, made some measurements that 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.959 stand up today. Ellott was more of a pure genius 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.879 conceptualize saying how to approach the river. He wrote a 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:08.119 port which called, for example, for reservoirs to contain, you know, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.840 hold water back from floods and things like that. There 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.760 was a theory at the time called the levees only policy, 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:21.800 that you use levees to control floods and only level levees, 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:27.040 because the theory was that the levees, by containing the river, 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:32.240 would force the river to dig out its own channel, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.280 essentially dredge its own channels, so it would become deeper 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.359 and deeper. By concentrating the flow, you would concentrate this, 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:45.320 you would increase the currents. Like narrowing the nozzle of 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.560 a garden hose, the water speeds up, and that you 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.840 point it at mud and they'll cut right through it. 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.840 So the levees only theory was based on that, and 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.760 that the river, if you narrowed it, it would speed 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:02.680 up and cut through it soft bottom, and pretty soon 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.600 would be deep enough naturally that it would accommodate a flood. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.960 It was a nice theory. It didn't work. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.200 Being a human is a weird condition in which you 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.080 roll into the earth, and a lot of problems have 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.679 already been solved. At the time, they didn't know how 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.320 to control the river, and the leading theory was called 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:31.760 the levees only policy. Ellett, however, hypothesized that a combination 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.359 of levees and outlets into reservoirs was a key to 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:39.439 controlling the river. But the outlets sounded radical and dangerous 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.640 and unnecessary to some. Why would you want to let 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:47.040 this dragon out of its earthen levee cage, Here's John. 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.639 The problem was that levees are only in contact with 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.199 the river for a few weeks a year during a flood. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.359 That's there's not a constant influence. So even though the 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.560 river probably would deepen itself when the current increased, it 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.720 wouldn't deepen itself enough to comminate the enormous increase of 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.919 water that came in a great flood. Anyway, Ellett and 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:22.640 Humphries agreed that this sery was nonsense. It would never work. Yeah, yeah, Nonetheless, 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.360 that became the policy of the corp of Engineers. Even 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:30.760 though there's one thing those two guys agreed upon. It's, 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.760 you know, truly a strange story. How a bureaucracy can 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.880 get something into its head and you can't get it out. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.919 It's not just a bureaucracy. People get wrong information in 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.400 their heads all the time, and just dig in. 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.679 People get wrong information in their heads all the time, 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:53.120 and just dig in. What how could this have happened? 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.480 But Ellett's view of what went on and how to 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.879 handle the river was, you know, without a doubt, in 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:06.000 my mind, the best view. Humphrey's study was accurate, but Elliott, 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:11.800 published much before Humphreys, and Humphreys was so competitive and 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.639 needed glories so much. He called Ellot's study and I 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.320 mean there are hundreds, you know, several centuries of engineers 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:22.280 studying rivers. He called Eli's study the worst ever in history, 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:29.639 because Elliott had made certain recommendations. You know, Humphreys wanted 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.280 his work to be, as he said, the work of 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:36.320 my life. You can't have a great work if all 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:40.439 you do is confirm someone else's work that came first. 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.399 So he ended up recommended against what his own measurements 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.000 said and what Elliot had said, just because he had 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.399 to be first, and he was a claim. Humphreys was 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.080 acclaimed by the scientific community. As I said, Elliot couldn't 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.240 rebut anything he said because Ellen was dead. Humphries was 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.080 a war hero. He was one of the initial founders 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.840 of the National Academy of Sciences, and you know, honorary 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.480 member of half a dozen European scientific societies and so 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:14.000 forth and so on. And after the Civil War it 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.680 became out of the corp of engineers, so there was 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:18.080 nobody to dispute them. 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.800 And so what's so interesting about that from a human 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:28.639 perspective is ego totally dominated. This guy's definitely a prognosis 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:30.879 of what needed to be done that was going to 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.159 affect millions and millions of people, and he just needed 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.639 to have a theory that stood out from what his 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.639 dead competitor said, right, I mean, does that not happen 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:45.199 all across life, at all different levels. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.800 Unfortunately. Yeah, most of us, if not all of us, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:53.040 like to think that we make judgments rationally. I certainly 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:57.840 like to think that hopefully I have enough sense of 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:02.400 the absurd and of my own weaknesses that I do. 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.080 But I'm sure I have biases. I know I have biases. 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:08.120 You just try to count for them. I mean, when 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.159 I was a football coach, we used to run I 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.159 guess we'd call it a four or four today, but 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:17.879 it was a wide tackle six. In that defense, you 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:22.760 basically line up two defensive tackles on the guards, so 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.119 they're out numbered three to two by the center and 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:28.439 two offensive guards. So you know you're outnumbered, and you 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:32.400 know that's a weakness of your defense. And every day 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.520 in practice we used to work on that weakness. Everybody 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.000 we play would try to exploit it, and you know, 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:40.240 some had some success, but I don't know that anybody 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.960 actually beat us because of that, because we were so 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:46.399 aware of that weakness. So, you know, I take the 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.200 same approach to my biases. I try to be aware 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:53.840 of my biases and adjust for them. Humphries didn't do that. 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:59.960 Humphries did not do that, and some of the conclusions 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:04.520 sea reach. For example, Ellett wanted outlets for the Mississippi 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.480 River when it was near the ocean to let water 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:11.479 out during the flood. Humphreys recommended against that and then 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:15.359 became the core of engineer's policy to oppose outlets. But 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:18.280 some of it made sense on a cost benefit analysis 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:22.120 at the time, but it was really pure ego. 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:28.880 We are all aware that other people around us, friends, 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.440 family members, and even enemies have blind spots in their life. 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:35.439 Am I right or am I right? Spanning from eating 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:39.840 too loudly to complete unawareness of how they dominate conversations, 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:43.280 or blindness of how they treat their spouse. But how 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.720 much energy do we exert trying to identify the blind 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:50.520 spots in our own lives. It's the healthy practice of 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:54.600 normal humans across the planet, and the work is never done. 0:24:55.359 --> 0:24:58.160 It should be on our eternal checklist of things will 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:02.480 never stop doing. Massively simplify the current strategy of flood 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:06.000 control that ended up working. It's a system of levees 0:25:06.240 --> 0:25:09.919 and outlets. When the water inside the levee gets too high, 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:13.760 they open up floodways or outlets that allow massive amounts 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:16.120 of water to escape the main channel of the river. 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:20.400 These planned floodways are outside the levees and are usually 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:25.080 agricultural areas. Ellett, the Union soldier, the one who died 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:28.359 in the Civil War at Vicksburg, suggested a system of 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:32.480 levees and outlets. I'd now like John Berry to introduce 0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:35.879 us to a third character of the Mississippi River. A 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:39.200 brilliant man born in eighteen twenty, the year of Daniel 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:43.440 Boone's death, by the name of James Buchanan Eads. 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:49.280 James Buchanan Aids is one of the great geniuses in 0:25:49.320 --> 0:25:54.679 American history. In the nineteen thirties, deans of American colleges 0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:58.440 of engineering put together a list of the five greatest 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:01.840 engineers of all time, talking about people like Leonardo da 0:26:01.920 --> 0:26:05.760 Vinci in Edison and so forth, and he was on 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:10.280 the list. He was dropped out of school, literally selling 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:12.240 apples on the street at Saint Louis when he was 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:14.840 eleven years old. He arrived in Saint Louis and his 0:26:14.920 --> 0:26:19.159 steamboat sank. He almost around to begin with, but he 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:22.560 was an absolute genius. He taught himself calculus, there were 0:26:22.600 --> 0:26:25.520 a lot of boats and steamboats sinking. He made a 0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:29.040 fortune when he was a very very young man designing 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:36.280 ways to salvage those sunken steamboat the cargoes in those steamboats. 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:42.040