Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Afternoon at the Locks

Ursi took me to see the fascinating Ballard Locks, built in 1916 to move boats along the Ship Canal from Puget Sound to Lake Washington.

A huge mossy gate maintains the different water levels and keeps the saltwater apart from the fresh.

Salmon can return to Lake Washington by using this fish ladder, which allows enough fresh water to spill into Puget Sound ...

... that salmon, spurred on by the smell of Lake Washington water, fight the current and dash themselves up over the fish ladder to get back to the place where they were spawned.

Meanwhile, in the other direction, barges move through the locks ...

... and so do giant ocean-going boats.

2 comments:

TemporaryLibrarian said...

Your photos remind me of Tana Hoban!

elizabeth said...

I almost put under that last picture that it was my tribute to Tana Hoban!