St. Lawrence Seaway Visitor Center

The St. Lawrence Seaway, which was completed in 1959, allows ships to travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes by using locks, canals, and channels to bypass shallow areas and rapids, and climb 243 feet from the ocean to Lake Ontario. There are fifteen locks on the St Lawrence Seaway and the Eisenhower Lock is the focal point of the visitor center.

Locks work on simple principles but it's fascinating to watch them in use. A lock consists of a lock chamber with a gate at each end. Only one gate is opened at a time which allows water to fill the chamber. The gate is closed and the chamber either fills or drains until the water is the level of the next section of the seaway. 

 

The visitor center has three floors with viewing windows or balconies on each floor. There are also exhibits and interactive displays on each floor. We just missed seeing a large ship being lowered through the lock but we did get to watch group of pleasure boats go through. 

The visitor center is accessible with an elevator to all the floors. Some of the hands on exhibits can not be used from a seated position. 

The parking lot is large enough for any vehicle. It gets pretty full when large ships are scheduled to pass through the lock. Visitor Center  44.9784, -74.85002