This paper uses direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent flow in a channel at Re t ¼ 950 (Del Álamo, Jiménez, Zandonade, Moser J Fluid Mech 500:135-144, 2004) to provide a picture of the turbulent structures making large contributions to the Reynolds shear stress. Considerable work of this type has been done for the viscous wall region at smaller Re t , for which a log-layer does not exist. Recent PIV measurements of turbulent velocity fluctuations in a plane parallel to the direction of flow have emphasized the dominant contribution of large scale structures in the outer flow. This prompted Hanratty and Papavassiliou (The role of wall vortices in producing turbulence. In: Panton, R.L. (ed) Self-sustaining Mechanism of Wall Turbulence. Computational Mechanics Publications, Southampton, pp. 83-108, 1997) to use DNS at Re t ¼ 150; 300 to examine these structures in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flow. They identified plumes which extend from the wall to the center of a channel. The data at Re t ¼ 950 are used to explore these results further, to examine the structure of the log-layer, and to test present notions about the viscous wall layer.