The Panama Canal and its locks are so big that, without renting a helicopter for the day, it’s impossible to get a view of the entire project. Even if you taped all your photos end to end, they wouldn’t do it justice. What they do instead is feature the smaller details of the larger picture.
Like the two men in a small boat who row out to the large vessels and toss lines with which the ships tie up to the mules. The “mules” themselves resemble small locomotives that run on a track beside the canal and keep the ships centered in the various chambers.
The actual locks are like two immense flippers that move from the sidewalls of a chamber to meet in the middle. In this position, Earl captured workers, a bicyclist, and even a bus crossing from one side to the other on the top of the locks themselves. When the locks are joined together, the water in a given chamber is either raised or lowered, depending on the direction the ship is headed.
Then there were the white buildings that were once home to the United States military when our country owned the canal. They stand, well preserved, against a tapestry of green jungle. At one time, the builders of the canal wondered what they could do to make the landscape more attractive. Finally, they decided to leave the natural look, so that Earl could capture it almost a hundred years later.
And so it goes. Earl has photos of tugboats, freighters, the main house for the locks, and Gatun Lake. He even has photos of spectators watching the spectacle. Finally, as we were leaving the Canal Zone, he caught a breathtaking sunset. Here in St. Joseph, that photo counts for a lot, as we have hardly seen the sun since our return.
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