The Panama Canal locks is a lock system that lifts a ship up 85 feet (26 metres) to the main elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. It has a total of six steps (three up, three down for a ship's passage). The total length of the lock structures, including the approach walls, is over 3 kilometres (nearly two miles). They are one of the greatest engineering works ever to be undertaken at the time, when they opened in 1914. No other concrete construction of comparable size was undertaken until the Hoover Dam in the 1930s.
There are two independent lanes of transition (each lock is built double, so there is a two-lane traffic system). The locks physically limit the maximum size of ships which can transit the canal; this size became known as Panamax.
The locks are to be expanded in the near future to allow more and larger ships to use the canal.
Read more about Panama Canal Locks: Design, Filling and Draining, The Gates, Mules, Safety Features, Controls, Construction
Famous quotes containing the words canal and/or locks:
“My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high
Through the dear might of him that walk’d the waves,
Where other groves and other streams along
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song
In the bless’d kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the saints above
In solemn troops and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)