How Not to Harness a River

Street Smart Naturalist · May 14, 2026 · 8m

A poured concrete block the size of a Sprinter van is not something one normally finds in a river. Even less likely is finding an additional 21 such blocks strung across the length of a half mile wide flood plain. But such a location exists about four miles southeast of Auburn, Washington, on the White River. Not only do the massive piers, as they were described when built more than a century ago, litter the river valley, but many of them still retain remnants of the ten, one-inch steel cables strung between the blocks.

Known as the Drift Barrier of the White River, the concrete and steel…