Question

What was the purpose of the series of locks that the engineers built into the Panama Canal

Answer 1

Army Engineers and the Building of the Panama Canal, 1907 - 1914. Lock Construction. A key aspect of the canal plan was the decision to use a series of locks to raise ships above sea level and into a lake upon which they would traverse the Panamanian interior before being lowered again on the other side.

Answer 2

The purpose of the Panama Canal lock system is to help vessels transit between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans through artificial lakes and channels.

Locks allow a canal to go up and down hills. If there were no locks in the Panama canal, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans couldn't flow into each other, because there are hills in between.