, France The transport capacity of
pack animals and
carts is limited. A mule can carry a This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In
Egypt, canals date back at least to the time of
Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the
cataract on the Nile near
Aswan. at
Suzhou In
ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the
Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuries BC), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian
Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The
Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the
Grand Canal of China, still the longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is long and was built to carry the
Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu (
Beijing) and Yuhang (
Hangzhou). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it is rarely less than wide. In the 5th century BC,
Achaemenid king
Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the
Xerxes Canal through the base of
Mount Athos peninsula,
Chalkidiki, northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the
Second Persian invasion of Greece, a part of the
Greco-Persian Wars. It is one of the few monuments left by the Persian Empire in
Europe.
Greek engineers were also among the first to use
canal locks, by which they regulated the water flow in the
Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a pack-horse would [i.e. 'could'] carry only an eighth of a ton. On a soft road a horse might be able to draw 5/8ths of a ton. But if the load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons could be drawn by the same horse.— technology historian
Ronald W. Clark referring to transport realities before the industrial revolution and the
Canal age.
Hohokam was a society in the
North American Southwest in what is now part of
Arizona, United States, and
Sonora, Mexico. Their irrigation systems supported the largest population in the Southwest by 1300 AD. This prehistoric group occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BC, and in the Early Agricultural period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. The large-scale Hohokam irrigation network in the
Phoenix metropolitan area was the most complex in ancient North America. A portion of the ancient canals has been renovated for the
Salt River Project and now helps to supply the city's water. ,
Sri Lanka The
Sinhalese constructed the
Yodha Ela in 459 AD as a part of their
extensive irrigation network which functioned in a way of a moving reservoir due to its single banking aspect to manage the canal pressure with the influx of water. It was also designed as an elongated reservoir passing through traps creating 66 mini catchments as it flows from
Kala Wewa to
Thissa Wawa. The canal was not designed for the quick conveying of water from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa but to create a mass of water between the two reservoirs, which would in turn provide for agriculture and the use of humans and animals. They also achieved a rather low gradient for its time. The canal is still in use after renovation.
Middle Ages In the
Middle Ages, water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by
animal drawn conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of
mules to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton, with
Glastonbury Abbey, a distance of about . Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century. More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like the
Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect
Milan with the river
Ticino. The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the
lombard "
navigli" and the oldest functioning canal in Europe. Later, canals were built in the
Netherlands and
Flanders to drain the
polders and assist transportation of goods and people. Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from the 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or
flash locks. Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with
watermill owners and to correct this, the
pound or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in
Vreeswijk, Netherlands. Another important development was the
mitre gate, which was, it is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of
guillotine locks. To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first
summit level canals were developed with the
Grand Canal of China in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the
Stecknitz Canal in Germany in 1398.
Africa In the
Songhai Empire of West Africa, several canals were constructed under
Sunni Ali and
Askia Muhammad I between
Kabara and
Timbuktu in the 15th century. These were used primarily for irrigation and transport. Sunni Ali also attempted to construct a canal from the
Niger River to
Walata to facilitate conquest of the city but his progress was halted when he went to war with the
Mossi Kingdoms.
Early modern period , Sri Lanka Around 1500–1800 the first summit level canal to use pound locks in Europe was the
Briare Canal connecting the
Loire and
Seine (1642), followed by the more ambitious
Canal du Midi (1683) connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This included a staircase of 8 locks at
Béziers, a tunnel, and three major aqueducts. Canal building progressed steadily in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries with three great rivers, the
Elbe,
Oder and
Weser being linked by canals. In post-Roman Britain, the first
early modern period canal built appears to have been the
Exeter Canal, which was surveyed in 1563, and open in 1566. The oldest canal in the European settlements of North America, technically a
mill race built for industrial purposes, is
Mother Brook between the
Boston, Massachusetts neighbourhoods of
Dedham and
Hyde Park connecting the higher waters of the
Charles River and the mouth of the
Neponset River and the sea. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills. In Russia, the
Volga–Baltic Waterway, a nationwide canal system connecting the
Baltic Sea and
Caspian Sea via the
Neva and
Volga rivers, was opened in 1718.
Industrial Revolution The modern canal system was mainly a product of the 18th century and early 19th century. It came into being because the
Industrial Revolution (which began in Britain during the mid-18th century) demanded an economic and reliable way to transport goods and commodities in large quantities. By the early 18th century, river navigations such as the
Aire and Calder Navigation were becoming quite sophisticated, with
pound locks and longer and longer "cuts" (some with intermediate locks) to avoid circuitous or difficult stretches of river. Eventually, the experience of building long multi-level cuts with their own locks gave rise to the idea of building a "pure" canal, a waterway designed on the basis of where goods needed to go, not where a river happened to be. The claim for the first pure canal in
Great Britain is debated between "Sankey" and "Bridgewater" supporters. The first true canal in what is now the United Kingdom was the
Newry Canal in
Northern Ireland constructed by
Thomas Steers in 1741. The
Sankey Brook Navigation, which connected
St Helens with the
River Mersey, is often claimed as the first modern "purely artificial" canal because although originally a scheme to make the Sankey Brook navigable, it included an entirely new artificial channel that was effectively a canal along the Sankey Brook valley. However, "Bridgewater" supporters point out that the last quarter-mile of the navigation is indeed a canalized stretch of the Brook, and that it was the Bridgewater Canal (less obviously associated with an existing river) that captured the popular imagination and inspired further canals. The new canals proved highly successful. The boats on the canal were horse-drawn with a
towpath alongside the canal for the horse to walk along. This horse-drawn system proved to be highly economical and became standard across the British canal network. Commercial horse-drawn canal boats could be seen on the UK's canals until as late as the 1950s, although by then diesel-powered boats, often towing a second unpowered boat, had become standard. The canal boats could carry thirty tons at a time with only one horse pulling , Lockport, New York, c. 1855 The new canal system was both cause and effect of the rapid industrialization of
The Midlands and the north. The period between the 1770s and the 1830s is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of British canals. For each canal, an
act of Parliament was necessary to authorize construction, and as people saw the high incomes achieved from canal tolls, canal proposals came to be put forward by investors interested in profiting from dividends, at least as much as by people whose businesses would profit from cheaper transport of raw materials and finished goods. In a further development, there was often out-and-out speculation, where people would try to buy shares in a newly floated company to sell them on for an immediate profit, regardless of whether the canal was ever profitable, or even built. During this period of "
canal mania", huge sums were invested in canal building, and although many schemes came to nothing, the canal system rapidly expanded to nearly in length. at
Rexford, New York, one of 32
navigable aqueducts on the
Erie Canal Canal companies were initially chartered by individual states in the United States. These early canals were constructed, owned, and operated by private joint-stock companies. Four were completed when the
War of 1812 broke out; these were the
South Hadley Canal (opened 1795) in
Massachusetts,
Santee Canal (opened 1800) in
South Carolina, the
Middlesex Canal (opened 1802) also in Massachusetts, and the
Dismal Swamp Canal (opened 1805) in
Virginia. The
Erie Canal (opened 1825) was chartered and owned by the state of
New York and financed by
bonds bought by private investors. The Erie canal runs about from
Albany, New York, on the
Hudson River to
Buffalo, New York, at
Lake Erie. The Hudson River connects Albany to the Atlantic port of
New York City and the Erie Canal completed a navigable water route from the
Atlantic Ocean to the
Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of around . The Erie Canal with its easy connections to most of the US mid-west and New York City soon quickly paid back all its invested capital (US$7 million) and started turning a profit. By cutting transportation costs in half or more it became a large profit center for Albany and New York City as it allowed the cheap transportation of many of the agricultural products grown in the mid west of the United States to the rest of the world. From New York City these agricultural products could easily be shipped to other US states or overseas. Assured of a market for their farm products the settlement of the US mid-west was greatly accelerated by the Erie Canal. The profits generated by the Erie Canal project started a canal building boom in the United States that lasted until about 1850 when
railroads started becoming seriously competitive in price and convenience. The
Blackstone Canal (finished in 1828) in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island fulfilled a similar role in the early industrial revolution between 1828 and 1848. The
Blackstone Valley was a major contributor of the American Industrial Revolution where
Samuel Slater built his first textile mill. in the canal of
Gabčíkovo Dam (Slovakia) – the canal is conveying water to a hydroelectric power station.
Power canals A
power canal refers to a canal used for
hydraulic power generation, rather than for transport. Nowadays power canals are built almost exclusively as parts of
hydroelectric power stations. Parts of the United States, particularly in the
Northeast, had enough fast-flowing rivers that
water power was the primary means of powering factories (usually textile mills) until after the
American Civil War. For example,
Lowell, Massachusetts, considered to be "The Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution," has of canals, built from around 1790 to 1850, that provided water power and a means of transportation for the city. The output of the system is estimated at . Other cities with extensive power canal systems include
Lawrence, Massachusetts,
Holyoke, Massachusetts,
Manchester, New Hampshire, and
Augusta, Georgia. The most notable power canal was built in 1862 for the
Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.
19th century Competition, from railways from the 1830s and roads in the 20th century, made the smaller canals obsolete for most commercial transport, and many of the British canals fell into decay. Only the
Manchester Ship Canal and the
Aire and Calder Canal bucked this trend. Yet in other countries canals grew in size as construction techniques improved. During the 19th century in the US, the length of canals grew from to over , with a complex network making the Great Lakes navigable, in conjunction with Canada, although some canals were later drained and used as railroad
rights-of-way. In the United States, navigable canals reached into isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world beyond. By 1825 the Erie Canal, long with 36 locks, opened up a connection from the populated Northeast to the Great Lakes. Settlers flooded into regions serviced by such canals, since access to markets was available. The Erie Canal (as well as other canals) was instrumental in lowering the differences in commodity prices between these various markets across America. The canals caused price convergence between different regions because of their reduction in transportation costs, which allowed Americans to ship and buy goods from farther distances much cheaper. Ohio built many miles of canal, Indiana had working canals for a few decades, and the
Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the
Mississippi River system until replaced by a channelized river waterway. . Three major canals with very different purposes were built in what is now Canada. The first
Welland Canal, which opened in 1829 between
Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, bypassing
Niagara Falls and the
Lachine Canal (1825), which allowed ships to skirt the nearly impassable rapids on the
St. Lawrence River at
Montreal, were built for commerce. The
Rideau Canal, completed in 1832, connects
Ottawa on the
Ottawa River to
Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The Rideau Canal was built as a result of the War of 1812 to provide military transportation between the British colonies of
Upper Canada and
Lower Canada as an alternative to part of the St. Lawrence River, which was susceptible to blockade by the United States. , from around 1870. In France, a steady linking of all the river systems –
Rhine,
Rhône,
Saône and Seine – and the North Sea was boosted in 1879 by the establishment of the
Freycinet gauge, which specified the minimum size of locks. Canal traffic doubled in the first decades of the 20th century. Many notable sea canals were completed in this period, starting with the
Suez Canal (1869) – which carries tonnage many times that of most other canals – and the
Kiel Canal (1897), though the Panama Canal was not opened until 1914. In the 19th century, a number of canals were built in Japan including the
Biwako canal and the
Tone canal. These canals were partially built with the help of engineers from the Netherlands and other countries. A major question was how to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific with a canal through narrow
Central America. (The
Panama Railroad opened in 1855.) The original proposal was for a
sea-level canal through what is today Nicaragua, taking advantage of the relatively large
Lake Nicaragua.
This canal has never been built in part because of political instability, which scared off potential investors. It remains an active project (the geography has not changed), and in the 2010s Chinese involvement was developing. The second choice for a Central American canal was a
Panama Canal. The
De Lesseps company, which ran the
Suez Canal, first attempted to build a Panama Canal in the 1880s. The difficulty of the terrain and weather (rain) encountered caused the company to go bankrupt. High worker mortality from disease also discouraged further investment in the project. DeLesseps' abandoned
excavating equipment sits, isolated decaying machines, today tourist attractions. Twenty years later, an expansionist United States, that just acquired colonies after defeating Spain in the 1898
Spanish–American War, and whose Navy became more important, decided to reactivate the project. The United States and Colombia did not reach agreement on the terms of a canal treaty (see
Hay–Herrán Treaty). Panama, which did not have (and still does not have) a land connection with the rest of Colombia, was already thinking of independence. In 1903 the United States, with support from Panamanians who expected the canal to provide substantial wages, revenues, and markets for local goods and services,
took Panama province away from Colombia, and set up a
puppet republic (
Panama). Its currency, the
Balboa – a name that suggests the country began as a way to get from one hemisphere to the other – was a replica of the
US dollar. The US dollar was and remains
legal tender (used as currency). A US military zone, the
Canal Zone, wide, with US military stationed there (
bases, 2 TV stations, channels 8 and 10,
Pxs, a
US-style high school), split Panama in half. The Canal – a major engineering project – was built. The US did not feel that conditions were stable enough to withdraw until 1979. The withdrawal from Panama contributed to President
Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980.
Modern uses Large-scale ship canals such as the Panama Canal and Suez Canal continue to operate for cargo transportation, as do European barge canals. Due to
globalization, they are becoming increasingly important, resulting in expansion projects such as the
Panama Canal expansion project. The expanded canal began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new set of locks allow transit of larger,
Post-Panamax and
New Panamax ships. The narrow early industrial canals, however, have ceased to carry significant amounts of trade and many have been abandoned to navigation, but may still be used as a system for transportation of untreated water. In some cases railways have been built along the canal route, an example being the
Croydon Canal. A movement that began in Britain and France to use the early industrial canals for pleasure boats, such as
hotel barges, has spurred rehabilitation of stretches of historic canals. In some cases, abandoned canals such as the
Kennet and Avon Canal have been restored and are now used by pleasure boaters. In Britain, canalside housing has also proven popular in recent years. The
Seine–Nord Europe Canal is being developed into a major transportation waterway, linking
France with
Belgium,
Germany, and the
Netherlands. Canals have found another use in the 21st century, as
easements for the installation of
fibre optic telecommunications network cabling, avoiding having them buried in roadways while facilitating access and reducing the hazard of being damaged from digging equipment. Canals are still used to provide water for agriculture. An extensive canal system exists within the
Imperial Valley in the Southern California desert to provide irrigation to agriculture within the area. ==Cities on water==