Live camera at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

[Colliemom]

I have been spending some of my time watching this camera what is mounted on what is called the Tower of history Chinese and 10 feet above Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. The camera pans from east to west and north along the St. Mary’s River which divides Sault Sainte Marie,Michigan from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Sault Ste. Marie is home with you all to the Saint Mary’s ship canal, better known as the Sault Locks. As the camera passes along, you will notice rapids between the two towns in the river. Lake superior drops 21 feet down to Lake Huron, so order for ships to go between the true like if I have to lock around the rapids. If a freighter is coming in on the river the camera will zoom in on it and it will follow it all the way through the locks and back out. It’s kind of a fascinating process to watch. It takes 20 minutes for them to enter the lock, , 20 minutes to be raised or lowered depending on which way they are going and another 20 minutes to exit. These freighters are carrying anywhere from coal, ore, limestone or grain, from ports in Duluth or Two Harbors, MN, Superior, WI, Marquette, MI and Thunder Bay, ON. To ports in MI, OH, IL, IN, WI and Canada. At the time the locks were built, there were four American and one Canadian lock. However over the years as the ships have gotten longer the Canadian lock and two of the American locks are no longer useable. The Poe lock which is currently the one being used right now is 1200 feet long and the only one capable of locking the 1000 foot freighters through. Used by both American and Canadian freighters as well as oceangoing freighters. The smaller MacArthur lock is currently closed for the season as will the Poe Lock this coming Sunday. Thought I would share this with you because the scenery is so spectacular looking across the river towardCanada, you can see for probably 25 miles or more across the Algoma country of Ontario, Canada. I might mention that yesterday I happened to be able to watch two ships that had gone through the locks and were met by a supply ship shortly after, who pulled alongside them and rode along with them to transfer supplies up to the deck with a crane. It was fascinating. I follow an app that tells me where the ships are all over, so I kind of have an idea of when one might be coming through the locks. Within the next few days there’s going to be a number of them coming through, because they want to get back down before the locks close. They will be going into winter layup until the end of March. Add that you will notice a bridge across the river when the camera looks toward the west. That is the international Bridge border crossing between the United States and Canada. About 7000 ships a year use the wax hauling around 86,000,000 tons of Cargo.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... P6pIrmO_nQ

[Cudedog]

Interesting, Sue! There was a small ship going though when I looked - it was moving surprisingly fast!

Thanks for sharing!

Anne

[Colliemom]

Your welcome Anne. Little ships can go through pretty quick but those biggies especially the thousand footers, have about 4 inches of clearance on each side between the lock wall and the ship, so they need to go extremely slow. I watch this morning at 9:25 AM my time there are two ships approaching the locks. One of them is the thousand footer Burns Harbor. It’s a beautiful day out there today too. Wish they can send some of that sun my way.

[Cudedog]

Your welcome Anne. Little ships can go through pretty quick but those biggies especially the thousand footers, have about 4 inches of clearance on each side between the lock wall and the ship, so they need to go extremely slow. I watch this morning at 9:25 AM my time there are two ships approaching the locks. One of them is the thousand footer Burns Harbor. It’s a beautiful day out there today too. Wish they can send some of that sun my way.

Wow! Thousand-footers with 4" clearance?? That is a tight squeeze, especially considering they are moving on water, which can make them go every which way!

Do they ever get stuck?

Anne

[Bethers]

I went right over there when I first saw the post here. I could get addicted.

[JudyJB]

One of my favorite places for ship watching is a campground a mile east of the Soo Locks--called Aune Osborn, and pretty basic, but there are electric hookups and you are right on the St. Mary's river where it narrows before going through an even more narrow channel and into Lake Huron. The ships are close enough that you can wave at the workers on deck. https://saultstemarie.com/places/aune-osborn-campground/

Here are two pages from my blog with photos from trips I took there:

http://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2015/06/613-aune-osborn-campground-soo-locks.html

http://grandmajjb.blogspot.com/2015/07/78-aune-osborne-campground-again.html

There is a web site and a number you can call to tell you where every ship is on the Great Lakes, so you can predict when one will come through! You will have to adjust the zoom and possibly recenter the view, but if you click on a ship, it will show you a picture of it and give its destination. It also tells you its speed and how much water it draws. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-84.1/centery:46.3/zoom:8