.....most tour brochures preface their trip with "if we're fortunate, we may get to see a large ship going through the locks" or "we may be able to see a partial transit through the locks." We got there just in time to see a complete portage of a very large ship through the Miraflores Lock.
I didn't realize this is the centennial of the opening of the lock. Today we had a large ship connected to the railroad cars and ready to transit
.
The railway cars (two on each side) don't actually pull the ship. The ship navigates the canal under it's own power--the railroad cars simply keep it centered. This ship had less than 12 inches on each side. Notice the size of the ship in the background.
Here you can see the lock it is going into has a much higher water level--about 10 meters or 30 feet. I hadn't thought about it, but the sea is level all over the world--the Atlantic and Pacific are the same. The reason for the locks is that the canal goes over varied elevations of land, otherwise they would have just built a canal from side to side. Two large lakes constitute a large part of the Canal and they lie at different elevations. This is why the locks are necessary and it surprised me, but the Panama Canal is fresh water which allows rain to replenish the lakes and keep the water available for the locks.
As the water was drained from the upper lock, you can see the gates opening here. It took about twelve minutes to drain the lock.
Here you can see it traversing into the lowered lock where it will be raised about 30 feet when the gates are shut behind it.
I'm having trouble getting the video to work, but it is probably moving 8-10 mph through the canal at this point.
Here the gates are shutting behind the ship and the lock will be flooded again--about 10-12 minutes.
And here it is off again into the next lake.
For centuries the only passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was the Magellan Strait where I was last year for the marathons. From Central America it took about 30 days of dangerous sailing to reach the other side of Central America. Today the canal operates 24/7 and sends ships through in about ten hours.
There was a really good museum and outside, there were a lot of old equipment for viewing. You can see the early railroad engines were simple basics:
All this was accomplished before World War I. Last summer, Devin and I visited Hoover Dam which was built during the Great Depression. Today it seems our highways, bridges and infrastructure are falling apart while China and other countries are building these kind of projects. But at least we're rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq I guess.
The tour also stopped by the "colonial" area of Panama City and was interesting. Actually the city is like most Central and South American cities I've visited--very little of historical interest.
The skyline is pretty amazing from across the Bay of Panama:
It started raining just as we got back to the hotel. If it stops, I may go for a walk along the promenade, if not I'll just hang around in the hotel.
Tomorrow I start work.......
I didn't realize this is the centennial of the opening of the lock. Today we had a large ship connected to the railroad cars and ready to transit
The railway cars (two on each side) don't actually pull the ship. The ship navigates the canal under it's own power--the railroad cars simply keep it centered. This ship had less than 12 inches on each side. Notice the size of the ship in the background.
Here you can see the lock it is going into has a much higher water level--about 10 meters or 30 feet. I hadn't thought about it, but the sea is level all over the world--the Atlantic and Pacific are the same. The reason for the locks is that the canal goes over varied elevations of land, otherwise they would have just built a canal from side to side. Two large lakes constitute a large part of the Canal and they lie at different elevations. This is why the locks are necessary and it surprised me, but the Panama Canal is fresh water which allows rain to replenish the lakes and keep the water available for the locks.
As the water was drained from the upper lock, you can see the gates opening here. It took about twelve minutes to drain the lock.
Here you can see it traversing into the lowered lock where it will be raised about 30 feet when the gates are shut behind it.
I'm having trouble getting the video to work, but it is probably moving 8-10 mph through the canal at this point.
Here the gates are shutting behind the ship and the lock will be flooded again--about 10-12 minutes.
And here it is off again into the next lake.
For centuries the only passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was the Magellan Strait where I was last year for the marathons. From Central America it took about 30 days of dangerous sailing to reach the other side of Central America. Today the canal operates 24/7 and sends ships through in about ten hours.
There was a really good museum and outside, there were a lot of old equipment for viewing. You can see the early railroad engines were simple basics:
All this was accomplished before World War I. Last summer, Devin and I visited Hoover Dam which was built during the Great Depression. Today it seems our highways, bridges and infrastructure are falling apart while China and other countries are building these kind of projects. But at least we're rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq I guess.
The tour also stopped by the "colonial" area of Panama City and was interesting. Actually the city is like most Central and South American cities I've visited--very little of historical interest.
The skyline is pretty amazing from across the Bay of Panama:
It started raining just as we got back to the hotel. If it stops, I may go for a walk along the promenade, if not I'll just hang around in the hotel.
Tomorrow I start work.......
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