The Gatun Locks on the Panama Canal lift a ship about 85 feet, roughly 26 meters, from the Atlantic to Gatun Lake. They do it in three steps, and they were finished in 1914.
Gatun sits at the Atlantic end of the canal, near Colón. It is one of three sets of locks on a 50-mile waterway cut across the isthmus of Panama between the Pacific and the Atlantic, which is technically the Caribbean Sea. The canal exists to shorten the trip between the two oceans for commercial shipping. Heading toward the Atlantic, the same three chambers work in reverse and lower ships 85 feet to sea level.
Mules, not tugboats
Ships do not go through the chambers under their own steam. Electric locomotives called mulas, or mules, do the guiding. Japanese-made, they run along fixed rails beside the chambers on a cog railway and carry powerful winches. Lines run from the mules to the ship, with one attached at each corner of the hull. The cables keep the vessel straight and centered as the water rises or drops.
The scene at Gatun is routine. A cruise liner waits for the gate to close and the water to rise. A container ship in the next chamber is ready to move out into the lake. Tankers, bulk carriers and cruise ships all take their turn. One bulk carrier, the Kouju Lily, built in 2011, is 197 meters long and 32 meters wide.
Built in four years
The first concrete for the canal was poured at Gatun in August 1909. Crews needed four years to finish the original 12 locks, which opened in 1914. A lighthouse beside the locks, the tallest and most recognizable on the canal, stood as the rear light for Atlantic-bound ships coming down from the lake. It served from 1914 to 2018.
A second set of locks
Another set of locks went into commercial service in 2016. Those allow New Panamax ships through, vessels with more cargo capacity than the original chambers were able to handle. The container ship Mathilde Schulte has been photographed entering the Gatun Locks, with the Puente Atlantico (2019) in the background.
From Colón, a ship leaving the locks at sea level has only a short stretch of canal left before it reaches the Caribbean.
