This Week: The Panama Canal

An important element of the canal are the mules, the electric locomotives, which guide the ships through the locks.  From the Wikipedia entry on the locks:

A ship approaching the locks first pulls up to the guide wall, which is an extension of the centre wall of the locks, where it is taken under control by the mules on the wall before proceeding into the lock. As the ship moves forward, additional lines are taken to mules on the other wall. With large ships, there are two mules on each side at the bow, and two each side at the stern — eight in total, allowing for precise control of the ship.

The mules themselves run on rack tracks, to which they are geared. Each mule has a powerful winch, operated by the driver; these are used to take the line in or pay it out, to keep the ship centered in the lock while moving it from chamber to chamber. With as little as 2 feet of space on each side of a ship, considerable skill is required on the part of the operators.

Two feet of room!  When you look at a ship the size of the one in yesterday's photo you realize how important the mules are.  

For those that are visual like me I found a good animation of how the Panama Canal locks work.  Go to the link below and click on Operation.  The Transit animation is interesting as well.

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/general/howitworks/index.html