The Cruising Adventures of Wally and Darcy: July 8-10 Peterborough, Ontario and its famous Lift Lock #21

We’ve been anxiously anticipating the Peterborough Lift Lock ever since we first learned about it in 2013 at our first AGLCA Rendezvous in Norfolk, VA. When the local Port Captain Don Bennett offered to take interested Loopers for a personalized tour of the lock, we leaped at the chance. Considered an enginering marvel when it was completed in 1904, the world’s highest hydraulic Lift Lock is celebrating its 112 birthday this year. What does it look like? Picture your childhood teeter-totter (see-saw); the Peterborough Lift Lock is a giant version of it. It’s basically two pans 140 feet long, 33 feet wide and 9 feet 10 inches deep. How does it work? When the pans are filled with water they each weigh 1300 tons. With one pan up and one pan down, the two balance each other. As each boat moves into the lift lock, it is tied securely to a railing on the inside of the pan. There is no need to tend the lines as traditional locking requires because the boat, water and pan are all moving up the side of the chamber together. It doesn’t matter how many boats are in either pan, each boat displaces its own weight in water. When its time to lower one pan and raise the other one, one 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... 65 feet! The two pans are then locked in place and the extra water is let out of the lower pan. The transiting boats exit the pans on both levels; then new arrivals enter the pans on both levels. The process is repeated. Thanks to our sneak preview, we felt very relaxed and confident when we negotiated the famous lift lock two days later. Hopefully our pictures help add to your understanding. You can see it in action on Youtube by searching for Peterborough Lift Lock.