QUOTE(waterfordmatt @ Jan 28 2010, 12:18 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I lived up there 7 years and was always amazed that people go there from all over the world to see it and boy are they disappointed once they do. Yea its cool how it works but really nothing to look at.
It isn't rocket science how the locks work, but I think the fun of it is being that close to the ships and watching them maneuver in such close quarters into a space that isn't that much larger than the ship. It's especially neat for people who don't have a boat and normally don't get that close to ships.
I haven't been up there since just after 9/11, before the visitor platforms were enclosed with plexiglas, but I used to like to just stand there and enjoy the perspective, and enjoy the look of the kids there on the platform, too. Was always fun to lean over and give a little warning to an unknowing parent from somewhere like, say Nebraska, to have their awestruck (and unsuspecting) child cover their ears to prepare for the whistle blast as the ship was about to exit the lock. More than once a kid standing next to me would jump out of their skin when the whistle let go.
Was kind of a similar thing too when I worked at Fort Gratiot Lighthouse. Many people were just in awe to see the ships go by so close and so many people said the same thing about how blue and beautiful Lake Huron is...then I'd tell them the story of the Great Storm of 1913 and how ugly the lake can get, too.
Standing at that level, you get a different perspective of the ships, just like you do when you are actually standing on the deck of another ship. You can see the minute details of the hulls, see the water pumping out of discharge ports, smell the exhaust, feel the thumping and throbbing of the engines (from a motor vessel, anyway). There are the noises of the winches and other machinery...it's a real sensory experience. There is also the neat experience of being able to shout greetings across to the crews, whether they are American, Canadian, or from somewhere else around the world. If you have the interest and passion to follow the ships, it is even more intense.
(Another cool place to do that is the Duluth entry piers in Duluth, MN. Beautiful city with lots to do, would definitely recommend it as a destination. Went there on our honeymoon. Was there when Buckeye came in and her crew was lined along the rail waving to the tourists as she came in. Was really neat.)
I once worked with someone who grew up in Marine City and he said that, as a kid, the ships were something you just took for granted. They were there, saililng past, upbound and downbound. It wasn't until after he moved away as an adult that he realized just what he was missing. Maybe its the same for someone who lives at the Soo and sees it all the time.