The Gatun Locks - a Freighter in front of us
The Panama Canal Locks, which lift ships up 25.9 m (85 ft) to the main elevation of the Panama Canal, were one of the greatest engineering works ever to be undertaken at the time.The total length of the lock structures, including the approach walls, is over 3 kilometres (nearly two miles). The locks, which have a total of six steps, limit the maximum size of ships which can transit the canal. Each of these steps has two lock chambers, doubling the amount of traffic that can be handled; together they raise ships from sea level to a height of 25.9 m (85 ft).
There are three sets of locks in the canal. A two-step flight at Miraflores, and a single flight at Pedro Miguel, lift ships from the Pacific up to Lake Gatun; then a triple flight at Gatun lowers them to the Atlantic side.
So much information in Wikipedia - this is just a small quote from it.
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All my photos are taken from various levels of our ship where I ran around trying to find the best angles.
Thank you for all your visits and appreciative comments !!!!
Franzi48 28/06/2011 18:35
Eine sehr interessante Aufnahme, super++Lg Franzi
Sally Dunn 27/06/2011 8:50
It certainly is a feat of engineering, I have seen and been through little locks but this is on a grand scale and very impressive to get ships of a huge size through!Hugs
Sally
MICHAEL stüben 25/06/2011 17:04
SUUUPER !!mike snead 25/06/2011 14:27
downhill or the long slide into the abyss.great.
mike
Werner R. Albert 25/06/2011 14:03
These locks look very narrow !Well shown, Adele.
many hugs
Werner
Ruth Hutsteiner 25/06/2011 12:24
Das war bestimmt eine interessante Aktion zu sehen, wie der Frachter gehoben wird.hugs
Ruth
Conny11 25/06/2011 12:04
Klasse, gut fest gehalten.Liebe Grüße und ein schönes Wochenende Conny
s. sabine krause 25/06/2011 8:50
i've passed through locks a couple of times in my life – on ferry boats that were rather small… THIS HERE must have been an amazing experience: to be following a freighter (wow!) and see it be lifted up in front of you – great!! and you succeeded in preserving some of the exitement for us viewers, making us get an inkling of how it must feel to go through the panama canal! great!! hugs, sabine.Vera M. Shulga 25/06/2011 8:48
interesting viewwilly ombret 25/06/2011 8:13
belle vuewilly ombret
Segura Carmona 25/06/2011 0:40
Estiramientos III
Segura CarmonaVitória Castelo Santos 25/06/2011 0:15
Another great shot AdeleKisssssssssssss
melkart (pepe jaime) 24/06/2011 22:38
Magnífico detalle de una parte del canal de Panamá. felicidades. Un abrazoRainer Golembiewski 24/06/2011 22:23
is big! Grossartig!Ernst Heister 24/06/2011 22:19
Ich kann mir Dein aufgeregtes Herumrennen regelrecht vorstellen, hier hast Du auf jeden Fall einen spannenden Blickwinkel gefunden!Liebe Grüße, Ernst