Canals

Do any of you know how canals actually work? Canals are true engineering feats. They control water movement through intricate passage ways in order to facilitate nautical traffic. Construction workers connect unevenly leveled water sources.  Since they can't simply trudge through the dirt between two separate water ways, they've constructed methods to raise and sink boats to differing water levels.

For boats to travel across multiple depths, engineers developed special compartments, known as "locks," to ease ships to new water levels. Picture a process involving small dams regulating water levels to help a boat climb or descend stairs. When a ship pulls into a lock, leak proof gates seal closed as water is pumped into or out of the lock. The boat, regardless of the changing depths, stays floating atop the rising or falling water, but relative to its position inside the lock, the boat ascends or sinks. Once the lock's water levels match those of the outside water source, the front gate is opened, smoothly transitioning the ship into its new elevation.

I'm amazed that people have mastered nature so impressively that engineers can overcome physical obstacles, like digging, flooding, and crossing a 51 mile stretch in Panama.  Humans can plow through an entire country for the convenience of shortening trips across oceans. We can transport ships upstream by creating systems of locks and water pumps. And the real feat in constructing canals isn't just in the masterful engineering designs involved. Infrastructure projects of this magnitude require an unbelievable amount of coordination, ambition, and foresight, as well as the seamless management of money, people, politics, and technology.  Canals truly are wonders of the modern world.

Pictured above is the Panama Canal. Below is a short video representation.

Canals