Peterborough, ON to Young’s Point, ON

Miles Traveled 14.6

Total Miles Traveled 5330

Day 314

Our second lock of the day was a very informative and exciting one, the Peterborough Lift Lock.  We watched a short film about the Trent-Severn Waterway at the visitor’s center, and then watched another film about the lift locks construction and operation.

The Peterborough Lift Lock was completed in 1904 and was considered an engineering marvel at that time.  The dual lifts were the highest hydraulic boat lifts in the world, with a lift of 65 feet.  The final project included many engineering first; it was the first lock to be built out of concrete and was, for its time, the largest structure ever built with unreinforced concrete.

Each of the two pans weighs 1300 tons when filled.  With one pan up and the other down the two balance each other.  It does not matter how many boats are in either pan, a boat displaces its own weight in water.  When it is time to lower one pan and raise the other, one extra foot of water (130 tons) is allowed to enter the upper pan.  This extra weight allows the upper pan to push down and raise the lower pan to the top level, which only takes 90 seconds.

At this point I would have felt better if I hadn’t known about the unreinforced concrete.

At the top

We passed through 7 locks today, and had to wait a couple of times for other boats to drop down before we could lock up.  We are staying on the #27 lock wall at Young’s Point, a very nice rural area with a trading post, restaurant, and general grocery store.