Thanks for looking and commenting jamiw, Frank, Derek, Chris, Ken, John, Robert and Mojo.
Ken, no, I'm just the public. I go to this place when it's all frozen in in winter to shoot Eagles up close, and during the summer to shoot Pelicans. Recently I bought a Ultra Wide Angle and have taken an interest in shooting Landscapes. I was there the day before with a 300, but it was way too long for anything in the lock, so today I decided to go back and shoot the lock and dam with the wide angle and got lucky with the tow being cycled through for the second time, just as I got there. You can see his first set of barges on the outside of the upstream lock gates in #2 above.
But, this is a narrow lock compared to some of them I have seen further South. This tow might not have had to break apart the load in some of them.
Robert, yes, I was there for more than an hour, in which time, they only cycled once for this guy, which had apparently already cycled once before I got there and left half his load on the upstream side cause it all would not fit inside in one shot. Imagine the work that entails. They have to break apart the load, leave half of it floating below the lock, cycle through the first half, leave it tied off above the lock, cycle back through, go back to the first half they left below the lock, hook up again, cycle through again. While the upstream gates are open, they push up to the first half they left earlier, reset all the cables to the barges, then he can finally leave.
In this instance, there were two bass boats waiting upstream to get through. When he finally pushed away, as seen in the last shot, the two bassboats came in, they lowered the water, then let them out. As they left, there were two paddlewheelers already stacked up below the dam, waiting their turn to go through. They are kind of interesting as transportation, so here they are also. 
These two boats stay in La Crosse Wisconsin and do daily excursions up and down the river. One is actual steam, this first one, while the other is diesel and uses that to run the paddles...
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This other boat is the smaller of the two, and he had to circle outside the lock until the other one was tied off inside, then he came in and they cycled them both through together...
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