There are twelve locks (six pairs) in total. A two-step flight at Miraflores and a single pair at Pedro Miguel lift ships from the
The … 展开

Each lock chamber requires 26,700,000 US gal (101,000 m ) of water to fill it from the lowered to the raised position; the same amount of water must be drained from the chamber to lower it again. Embedded in the side and center … 展开

The gates separating the chambers in each flight of locks must hold back a considerable weight of water, and must be both reliable and strong enough to withstand accidents, as the failure of a gate could unleash a f… 展开

From the outset, it was considered an important safety feature that ships be guided through the lock chambers by electric locomotives, known as mulas (mules, named after the animals traditionally used to cross th… 展开

A failure of the lock gates—for example, caused by a runaway ship hitting a gate—could unleash a flood on the lands downstream of the locks, as the lake above the locks (Gatun Lake or Miraflores Lake) drains through th… 展开