Great Lakes the size of the United Kingdom, while the surface area of the entire basin (the lakes and the land they drain) is about the size of the UK and France combined. Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States; the others form a water boundary between the United States and Canada. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four
The Great Lakes Group provides linehandling assistance to vessels transiting the United States Army Corps of Engineers-administered and -operated Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on the St. Mary's River, the only water connection between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes. The Soo Locks are located in the St. Mary's Rapids, where the water falls about 21 feet from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Vessels must transit the Soo Locks en route to the principal ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Ontario and outbound to the sea. In 1999 Admiral Towing and Barge Company