It’s bi-directional traffic. There’s a ship ahead of us in the locks, heading toward the Pacific, as we are. Then there’s the ship to the left, coming towards us. Photos of the lock gates coming up. It was really quite impressive. Seemed like some feat of magic. And the ships look so small here. But ours was 936 feet long!
Sounds and looks like you found the whole process pretty fascinating as I did, too.
The first year that we lived in the Canal Zone, we could see the Miraflores locks from our house. Every time a ship cleared the locks it would sound its horn. Luckily they did not go through at night! I never went through the canal, but my dad chartered a boat once to go through the Gaillard Cut one evening after the transits had been concluded for the day. I got to tag along on that cruise. My first and only attempt at waterskiing was on Gatún Lake.
I didn’t realize there were residential areas near the canal. Everything looked very much business-like, surrounded by rich green expanses. All that rain!
But how cool to water-ski on Gatun Lake! Winnipesaukee for me. I think. Although there were several smaller lakes around Laconia, too.