Soo Locks, Michigan

The Soo Locks provide passage for ships between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. There are four parallel locks here, built at different times, starting in 1855, to accommodate increasingly larger ships. And there is one smaller one on the Canadian side of the boundary, used mostly for recreational traffic. One of the locks has been idled and awaits a conversion to a super-lock, large enough to handle the largest ships that pass through here, the bulk cargo freighters called Lakers, which can surpass 1,000 feet in length. There are more than 100 lake freighters operating continuously on the Great Lakes, moving raw, bulk materials between their source and their market, except for the winter, when the water is frozen. This is mostly iron ore from mines to steel mills, coal to power plants, limestone, grain, salt, and cement. There are around 10,000 passages through the locks every year. The locks are operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which has a visitor center for the public at the locks. They also have built a viewing deck, as the locks are an attraction that brings more than just “boat nerds” from far and wide.