Ballard Locks

We visited the Ballard Locks today. Ballard is the name of that area, and the locks connects Puget sound and Lake Union. The locks are kind of elevator which let vessels go through the canal from the lake to the sea, or from the sea to the lake.

In the past, they needed to carry lumbers by ship from lake Washington to Puget sound via Lake Union. The problem was; the water level of the lake was higher than that of the sea. If we connect the lake and the sea directly without the locks, the freshwater in the lake will flow into the sea, and it will dry up. We need locks because we do not want to empty the lake.

This is the step-by-step explanation how the lock works;
When the ship is going to go into the sea from the lake, the gate opens and the ship goes in the lock, and then it is closed. The water in the lock will be drained until the level become equal to that of seawater, and the other gate is opened, which connects the lock and the sea. The ship gets out of the lock. Because freshwater is lighter than saltwater, the freshwater in the lake generally will not mix with the seawater. Besides, At the bottom of the lake are some barriers which prevents seawater to go into the freshwater, something like bumps.

Salmons, their precious resorce of the Pacific ocean, come back to the lake, where they were born, from the sea in this time of year. Salmons spawn only in the lake, so people had to let the salmons return to the lake. They invented what is called "Fish ladder", which is similar to stairway, so that the salmons can go back and lay eggs.

I did not know what is the locks like, and how it works, so it was good for me to know. The Panama canal and other canals were built with the same idea.

I went to waterfront park again, and took many pictures of buildings in the city center. Seattle library is famous for its look, which is fully constructed with glass. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was closed due to the maintenance. Skyscrepers were very tall in that area and traditional hotels were also good.