And time they had - since the arsenal was not completed for nearly 27 years (1866-1893)!  The majority of this construction was started and driven by Col. T.J. Rodman, the inventor of the famous Rodman guns.  His grave site is UNMISTAKEABLE if you land on the island from the east, Moline Ill. entrance - his gravesite is in plain view of that bridge, and it's hard to miss seeing the two 5 inch Rodman guns and the one MASSIVE 15 inch gun mounted there that point toward the bridge.   It's really unnerving to glance over and see that big thing pointing at you!

The "main drag" of the Arsenal is called Rodman Avenue, and is simply breathtaking for those that are moved by architecture.  Coming from the west, or Davenport/Rock Island bridges, you'll pass the modern manufacturing complex, that houses some of the world's most sophisticated robotic machine tool technology - developed for tank and artillery production, they're "available" for other high-technology machine work.

Going further east, you approach the center of the island, which is significantly elevated to give a wonderful view of the surrounding country.  You will then reach the heart of the old Arsenal workshops, most of which are now converted office space for various and sundry military organizations. 

When you look at these photographs, you'll see the truly gigantic scale of these buildings.  The buildings are consistent with other industrial designs of the time, constructed to maximize the available daylight for the working force.  The sections facing the main avenue (Rodman Ave.) are long and without much variation, but have sections extended from this base.  Think of a letter "E" with the main street running along the long vertical side, with "legs" extended out from it, away from the main avenue.  Set in a north-south direction, these extensions housed the work areas so that morning light came in from the east sides through the long, tall windows, and through the western windows in the afternoon. 

The Rock Island Arsenal Museum (formerly called the John M. Browning Museum) is located in one of these workshop extensions.  While their collection of horse-related items is interesting, they are very small in number.  They do have a stunning collection of military firearms, containing examples of nearly everything ever to actual touch the ground of the arsenal - from production to experimental weapons to captured war trophies.   Believe it or not, I even saw a Trapdoor pistol on their wall - how bizarre is that?

There is one remaining cool thing about the Rock Island Arsenal that a visitor will see - the black squirrels. There's several stories about how they got on the island, but ALL of the squirrels on the island are pure, pitch black. This was a rare color variation that was found in some areas of the Iowa side of river, and were brought to the island and have since flourished there. While the population occasionally expands into the nearby city of Moline, they are pretty much an Island phenomenon. They're really quite fun to see - looks like they were dipped in black ink!

A view down the rear side of a workshop building/complex.  Note the "legs" that you can count by the individual roof peaks.  There are four of these building legs per workshop complex.  The main arsenal is composed of four of these complexes.

The following building is was known as Building C in the Arsenal's heyday, where the Harness Shop was located.  This is where all the saddlery, artillery and pack harness was made.

East end of the old Building C, Harness Shops

North-facing view of Building C, from Rodman Avenue.

(my apologies to the officer working that Sunday who got out of his car, in the photo, and looked at me
like I was some terrorist personally scoping out  his office space!)