Soo Locks

UTR-Webmaster>>Image, Episode 106

(906) 632-6301
P.O. Box 739, Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
Facebookwww.soolocks.com


While you’re in Sault Ste. Marie, be sure to go see the Soo Locks in action. It’s fascinating to get up close and watch these gigantic ships from all around the world go through. They pull in and are either raised or lowered twenty-one feet. If they go up, they’re heading north into Lake Superior. If they go down, they’re heading south into Lake Huron.

Standing on the observation platform, I had a conversation with a deckhand on board one of the giant freighters. When we started talking we were looking eye to eye, and when we were done, I was yelling down twenty-one feet to him. A very strange sensation. Then the lock doors opened on the south end, and the ship powered out and onto its destination. The cargo on the ship was grain headed to ports all over the world. Believe it or not, more cargo goes through the Soo Locks than the Panama and Suez Canals combined.