Last look

One last look (up!) at the Niederfinow lift lock. I think structures like this look great in black and white. I guess I'm on sort of a monochrome kick this week!

The basin

A lift lock works pretty much like an elevator - there is a basin that the boats drive (navigate?) into, the doors close and then a set of counterweights is engaged to bring the basin up or down. (At the lift lock in Peterborough, there were two separate side-by-side basins, one lower and one upper, that served as natural counterweights).

 

A group of kayakers joined us on the way up. We were all eagerly awaiting the start of the ride!

What I find amazing is that the technology has not really changed since the 1930s when this lock originally went into service. A few improvements have been made, but it's basically the same structure and the same core idea. A new lock is being built alongside this one as this waterway gets quite busy and needs to accommodate large ships, but the historic lift lock will remain in service for at least another fifteen years.

Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow

 

Back in Toronto, I remember being super impressed with a boat tour of the Peterborough Lift Lock. So when I learned that the Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow (Germany's oldest and biggest lift lock) is not far from Berlin, I knew I had to go see it. It didn't disappoint!

It's sort of hard to capture the engineering beauty of these types of structures, but it really was impressive. A smaller lock was originally built on this site in 1914, but was quickly deemed too small for traffic demands on the canal. In 1934 it was replaced by the big, imposing structure that still stands today. It works a bit differently from the one in Peterborough - it had two basins which served as natural counterweights while Niederfinow has one basin and external counterweights - but the principal is the same. The lift stands at 60 meters tall and the journey up and down takes about five minutes. Be sure to check back later this week for an up close look at the lock, until then you can see more old stuff at Rubbish Tuesday.

Confidential to my brother: Happy Birthday!!!