How are the earth, the sun, and the moon arranged during spring tide?

In a spring tide, the Moon, Earth, and Sun are all in alignment, which causes the greatest gravitational pull on the water of Earth. Basically, when the Moon and Sun align towards and in the same direction at the Earth, their gravitational pulls join together making the pull stronger. (see image below)

What this very strong pull does is make high tides higher than usual, and low tides lower than usual. This is because the pull on tides is very strong and more water is being pulled to form higher high tides, making there less water for there to be in low tides.

(image is from oceanservice.gov)