A little story of a little more than 2 weeks ago, the weather was really nice and I had time. So I went for a little walk. I live in the middle of the continent, and there is a little canal in my town. In the first picture is a lock (they are numbered, this is #2) in that canal.
In the little canal travel little ships, like the one in the next 2 pictures. The dude on board the ship is included for scale, also he has a job on the ship. As you can see in the next pricture, the ships just barely fit into these locks. This ship was going downhill, towards the ocean, although it probably doesn't go that far (wrong kind of ship).
Then you can see the other (downward) side of the lock, with 2 little people there for scale. You can see a little of the ship sticking out the top of the lock.
Next you see the ship a little firther down, as it is coming out of the lock. And then it is going on it's way on, where ever it is going.
Along the canal is a nice little park.
If you want to go, by ship, to Montreal, or out to the Atlantic, say from Duluth, Chicago or Detroit – you go through this lock. These days, the big container ships don't fit through the locks, so traffic is not what it used to be. But historically, being able to move goods by seagoing ships into the middle of the continent has been important.
