The Ottawa Locks At Work

Sometimes, I get to see wonderful things on my daily walk to or from work. Today, as I was walking across the bridge from Gatineau to Ottawa after work, I managed to see the Ottawa Locks at work. I started to take pictures when I saw that some boats were in the bottom lock that empties out into the Ottawa River. The tops of the boats are just visible above the lock gates.

The water was let out and the boats disappeared from view. On the right, you can see some other boats that are waiting their turn to go up the locks in the other direction after the boats coming down have finished going through the locks. 

All the water was let out and the gates slowly began to open. The boats that have come down the locks are just visible inside. 

Here, the gates are completely open. There are eight locks altogether in this set that connects the Ottawa River with the Rideau Canal above. 

The first boat is coming out through the open gates.  

Now the first boat is completely out of the lock and the other boats begin to follow. 

Soon, all the boats were out of the lock and floating on the Ottawa River. 

A few minutes later, the first of the boats that were waiting to go in the other direction up the locks to the Rideau Canal started to move into the bottom lock. 

The first boat is in and the others soon followed. Then the gates will close, the lock will fill up with water, and the boats will move into the second lock above. The whole process of going up or down the flight of eight locks takes about one and a half hours. I think it would be fun to try it (in a nice boat, of course) just once, but for today it was fun just to watch the locks at work.