Sault Sainte Marie

We are at the border between the U.S. and Canada.

I knew the name of our present location, but I had no idea how it was spelled. I tried Sioux Saint Marie. The search engines figured out what I mean, but I was surprised to learn it was Sault Sainte Marie. I guess the translation is basically "the rapids of the Saint Mary's River". The important word for present day use of the Great Lakes is rapids. The giant ships that move from one lake to another could not do this if there was not a way around the rapids. The engineering answer to allow transport was a canal with locks. Today we watched a large ship carrying iron ore pass through the locks.

The ship we watched move through the lock was 1000 feet long. The locks lowered this ship 21 feet before it would be at the level necessary to enter the water outside the locks.

Double click on this panoramic photo get a feel for the length.