At the Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River sits the world's largest mechanical ship lift.
It takes vessels weighing up to 3,300 US tons (3,000 metric tonnes) and raises or lowers them through a vertical distance of 371 feet (113 meters).
The ship is only part of the load.
What actually moves upward?
After the vessel enters, the chamber seals tight. The ship stays in the water. That water rises with the ship, the steel chamber, and its mechanical systems.
The moving mass reaches about 17,100 US tons (15,500 metric tonnes), roughly 6,200 pickup trucks.
It all travels as one balanced system. The mechanisms must stay in exact sync for the full climb. The lift never pulls the ship out of the water to carry it to the other level.
The trip takes about 40 minutes, not about 150 minutes through the locks, chambers where the water level changes to move the ship.
The ship keeps floating.
The lift raises the water that carries it.
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