Soo Locks at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan

Sault Ste Marie is home to several sets of locks on the St Mary's River.  There are locks on both the Canadian and the American side, and the earliest lock was built in 1855.  Today, about 10,000 ships pass through these locks annually, rising or lowering the 21 feet between Lake Superior and down river.

This is an arial view of the American side of the locks.

We waited at the viewing platform for a ship to come along and use a lock.

 Pretty soon a ship came and entered the lock from down river.

 After about 20 minutes the ship was raised to the upper level, the gates opened and the ship moved along.

Chris on the observation deck.  In the distance is the bridge to Canada.

 I was pretty excited when Phil and Chris told me we were going on a tour of the locks and would actually be on a boat as we went up and down...but once again, guess who wasn't included.

 This is the entrance to the same lock the ship used in the previous photos.

Once the lock filled with water, we continued up river and under the road and train bridges between the US and Canada.  The darker bridge is the train bridge and that whole section lowers to join up the tracks on each side.

 Looks like they were sort of cold on their tour.  At least my fur keeps me warm and I found some fun things to do too.

 

 

There is a steel mill on the Canadian side.

This is another type of train bridge...this one swings around a central pivot to join up the tracks.

 For the trip back down the river we entered the Canadian lock, which is smaller and primarily used by pleasure craft.

It may be smaller, but it is still a massive amount of water.  Jet skis and canoes are not allowed in the large locks.  Once time some jet skiers started swimming in the lock, and the authorities we worried that a swimmer would get sucked down into the water rushing out through the tunnels. 

 Scary thought.

 Chris and Phil both stayed on board and didn't test any of the vortex theories.