before the 9-Foot Channel Project began though. The common paddle gate, which is an antiquated ancestor of the more modern tainter gate, was adapted and eventually patented by American Captain Marshall Lewis in 1827. Throughout the nineteenth century engineers and entrepreneurs improved upon this design. In the early 1840s George W. Hildreth of Lockport, New York and George Heath of Little Falls, New York made refinements on the radial gate. In 1853 French engineer Poiree adapted arc gates for use in his movable dams. In 1886, a young Jeremiah Burnham Tainter patented an even more developed version of the radial gate that proved far superior to its predecessors. Three years later, in 1889, Major William L. Marshall was the first Corps engineer to use tainter gates. Major Marshall installed manually operated tainter gates in a movable dam that spanned the Rock River in Sterling, Illinois.

The design was not yet complete though; it would a take a decade of Corps tinkering and refining in the 9-Foot Channel Project before the tainter gate was perfected. Initially, the Corps intended to use a mixture of tainter gates and simpler, more reliable vertical roller gates in their Mississippi dams. The engineers believed the mixture of gate designs would afford them with increased control of water levels, especially in times of flooding. But as they installed and tested their units, they made improvements, and these improvements began to compile. They reinforced the girder frame, experimented with arc shapes, developed submersible versions, and created stronger and more rigid models. At first their alterations made the fabrication more expensive compared to roller gates. But as production techniques caught up and costs plunged, they were able to create tainter gates of unprecedented size and sophistication. In 1934, the only development left was the replacement of rail cars with electric motors to raise and lower the gates. By this time, all the gates in the project were converted or replaced with structures of the Tainter design.