The locomotives scurry back to help us.
It is now time for the Summit to move forward.
The other ship moves out to make room for us.
The little gap there is 1050 feet. The doors are beginning to close.
Note the water is now low in the next lock. It is actually two levels lower than us. The water in that lock must rise one level as the water drains from our position one level.
We move forward and can now clearly viewed the double set of doors.
Here you can see the water levels coming together
Now the levels match and it is time for the doors to open again.
The Gatun Locks (three sets in row)
One side of the rails on the locks were undergoing some "minor" maintenance. This is a familiar sight in the Washington DC Metro escalators.
I was told this part of the work would be done in six days!!
Now we move forward for the next stage.
The freighter is gone into the distance.
Once again the water flows out from our location into the next partition. We descend.
Looking back we can see the height of the doors and tracks for the locomotives.
I found this man along the side deck with a radio and stopwatch. He was one of the several canal pilots that were on our ship. They visually ensure that the gap stays between 1 and 2 feet on both sides of the ship
There we are again - this time we are on the stern as the second freighter come through behind the Summit.
A view of the descent from the stern.
We have now moved out of the last lock as the other ship is ready to move forward.
The doors open.
That little pool is 1050 feet long and 110 feet wide.
The doors close behind us as we are now at sea level. Notice the added feature of a roadway.....
This is the only roadway across the canal at the northern end. The roadway goes east-west to allow north-south traffic to flow between Panama to South America.
We have now made a complete transit of the Panama Canal. We started at 6 AM and it is now about 5 PM
This is the remains of the canal that the French dug out in the late 1800's . Twenty thousand persons died during this unsuccessful venture. Many of them died from yellow fever and/or malaria.
And so it goes.
The entrance to the French opening is on the right side of the picture.