The Soo Locks Without Water? Amazing! Check it Out!

Every year the Soo Locks, in Sault Ste. Marie, the nautical wonder that enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes, closes for the winter, January through March. They do it to begin work to maintain the locks. They literally drain the locks, "dewatering," as they call it..

Crews then clear away the ice that was left behind so that they can safely work on the lock floor. It's amazing to see the "dewatered" locks!

An average of 10,000 ships pass through the locks every year, even though they are closed for the first three months of every year.

Why do they have to drain the locks anyway? The engineers drain the locks so workers can inspect the interior and make needed repairs.

The first locks were opened in 1855. and were among the great infrastructure engineering projects of the United States. The Soo Locks were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

The Poe Lock, built in 1896, and sort of like the one seen above, was the largest in the world when completed.

The lock needed to be re-built in 1968 so that larger ships could make it into the Great Lakes after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened and made passage of such ships possible. The Poe, seen being cleared above, is the only lock that can handle the large lake freighters used on the Upper Lakes.

And now a new lock is under construction and should be completed by 2030. It will be equal in size to the Poe Lock and will provide much needed additional capacity for the large lake freighters. The new lock replaces two locks (Davis Lock and Sabin Lock), which were obsolete.