Stephen Tapply Photography
 
Panama 1

The Panama Canal

The Johannes Mersk enters the first of the two locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal... ...and once lowered, the gates open. The tug positions the ship at the entrance to the Miraflores lock...
...it moves into the lock under its own power... ...but there's only 24 inches clearance on either side... ...so these tiny locomotives keep it centred. Once the water has been released from the lock, at approximately two million gallons per minute... ...the lock gates, almost a hundred years old, are opened...
...the ship moves forward into the final lock... ...the locomotives move down the slope... ...the lock gates are closed... ...another 26 million gallons are released... ...and it's off to the docks to unload, or onward into the Pacific ocean.
Previous: Costa Rica Next: Panama 2
 

Copyright © Stephen Tapply