The locks of the St. Lawrence / actual date 9-27-14

While still in Ontario, driving north, I saw a sign pointing to one of the Locks along the St. Lawrence.  Well I figured that I should check-it-out, after all I had never seen that kind of a Lock (a little joke for my former co-workers at the City).  It was just about 7 km. off the highway and there was a great viewing area to see the whole operation.

Above you can see the north lock (top) & the south lock (bottom).  Below I will include two of the signs that describe the operation.

As I was taking a picture of the flags in the park next to the lock, I noticed more cars starting to arrive.

 I was asking a guy with a big camera about the flags.  He said that they are (L-R) the seaway flag, the Canadian flag & the British flag.  The British flag was there due to several battles that were fought in the area years ago.  I was thanking him & said I was going to leave when he said a big ship was coming through the lock soon.  Of course I decided to stay......
The next series is of this ship moving through.

As you can see in the picture above, there is only about a one foot margin on each side of the ship.  It is not pulled through like at the Panama Canal but "guided through" by thrusters on the ship, quite a feat.

I noticed this "escape pod" on the stern, that reminded me of the movie Captain Philips.  My friend told me that all ocean going ships had them.

One last sign telling about the lock system.  You will notice that the sign is in English & French.  A lot of the road signs from here to Nova Scotia were just in French - that was a bit of a stretch for me!

As you can see this is the Iroquois Lock.  Very interesting.
That enough for now.