Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (Ballard Locks)

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, commonly called the Ballard Locks, are a working lock complex at 3015 NW 54th St in Ballard, Seattle, Washington. They were built by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1911 and 1917 and are named for Hiram M. Chittenden, the Corps' Seattle district engineer who championed the project. The locks form the western end of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which connects saltwater Puget Sound with Lake Union and Lake Washington. The scheme was proposed for decades, because a freshwater harbor would protect ships from marine borers, and it required lowering Lake Washington by about nine feet in 1916, which altered shorelines, rivers and wetlands, and permanently changed the lake's outflow. The Corps built a large lock 825 feet long and 80 feet wide, a smaller lock 150 feet by 30 feet, a spillway dam and a fish ladder. The locks opened officially on July 4, 1917, and today more than 40,000 vessels pass through each year, from fishing boats and tugs to yachts and kayaks. The grounds include the Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Garden, laid out in the 1910s and 1930s with plants from around the world, a visitor center with exhibits on construction, ship traffic, salmon and the Native communities displaced by the canal, and a lawn used for picnics. The fish ladder is a series of stepped pools that let salmon and steelhead swim from the sound to the lake, and underwater viewing windows show the fish at close range, with the biggest runs from June through September. The structures are concrete, with steel gates powered by electric motors, and the Corps regularly rebuilds and repairs the gates, valves and culverts. The locks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and continue to serve as both a working piece of infrastructure and a popular public park. Their curatorial approach is informal, built around signs, a visitor center and a free walking tour, and the experience is best enjoyed by watching a boat locking through and then walking the small gardens.