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Groningen province and Friesland to link Groningen and Lemmar on the
Ijsselmeer and this has been enlarged for 1350 tonne barges and 400 tonne
coasting vessels. It is known as the Van Starkenborgh Canal in Groningen and
the Prinses Margriet Canal in Friesland. The Eemskanaal constructed in
1866–76 from Groningen eastward to Delfzijl on the Ems estuary has also
been enlarged. A westward branch from Suawoude near Leeuwarden, the Van
Harinxma Canal to Harlingen facing Terschelling, has also been built. In this
group, too, is the Winschoter Diep running eastward from Groningen to the
German border. These major waterways supplement the many minor ones.
Following the Treaty of Vienna in 1815, what is now Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg were united under William I of the
Netherlands. He recognized the importance of water transport and one
proposal of significance was to link the Meuse and the Moselle so that the
long, tedious journey via the Rhine could be avoided. This was to be
accomplished by linking the Ourthe, which (as a tributary of the Meuse
meeting it at Liège) was navigable to Barvaux, at that time the limit of
navigation, across Luxembourg to join the Sure near Diekirch and thence via
Echternach into the Moselle almost opposite its confluence with the Saar.
Work started in 1826 and some excavation, including the beginning of the
Bernistap tunnel, was carried out before the Belgian Revolution occurred in
1830. Work then ceased; Belgium, now a separate country, was at the time
financially unable to continue the work and it was never resumed.
Rather more successful was the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal which
superseded an earlier small canal giving Ghent access to the sea via the
Schelde in 1827. Terneuzen on the Schelde became Dutch after 1830 while
Ghent remained in Belgium, but the canal served Ghent well, being
reconstructed in the 1870s and again in 1910; in 1968 its capacity was
increased to take ships of 60,000 tonnes.
The major development in recent canal construction has been the

ScheldeRhine Canal to allow Antwerp traffic to gain the Rhine. A new canal
has been built from Antwerp to bypass the Western Schelde and enter the
Eastern Schelde at Kreekrak locks. The route then crosses the Eastern Schelde
and across Tholen to the Volkerak which has been dammed off from the open
sea as part of the great Dutch Delta Plan for prevention of the kind of flood
disaster which occurred in 1953. To reach the Hollandsche Diep and thence
the Rhine, it is necessary to pass the Volkerak locks. Over the locks is now a
major road junction, yet the whole area was open sea in the 1960s. A curtain
of air bubbles rising from the bottom of the locks creates a turbulence which
inhibits the mixing of the fresh and salt water, thus preventing salt water from
entering the new fresh-water areas created by the Delta Plan and so preserving
the ecology and fertility of the new land areas.
Further south in Belgium changes in the coastline have affected the
northwestern area. Before the fifteenth century Bruges had ready access to the
INLAND WATERWAYS
493
sea through its outport at Damme, but a storm in 1404–5 caused the Zwijn,
which led to Damme from the sea, to silt up. A new channel was built to Sluis
and then in 1622 a canal to Ostend was constructed and later extended to
Nieuport and Dunkirk. Eastwards a canal was built in 1613–23 from Bruges to
Ghent and though this has been improved Bruges has never regained her
former commercial importance.
Much more important were the canal developments in connection with the
coalfields in the south of the country and the trade through to France. The
Mons-Condé Canal was completed in 1818, crossing into France to link with
the Escaut (Schelde), and later in 1826 the Antoing-Pommeroeil Canal enabled
barges to travel from Mons to south of Tournai on the Escaut entirely within
Belgian territory.
Also within this construction period came the building of the Brussels-
Charleroi Canal for small barges in 1832. This was enlarged to 300 tonne

standard during the long period 1854–1914 and the number of locks was
considerably reduced. In the period after World War Two it was
reconstructed to 1350 tonne standard and this included the major
engineering work of the Ronquieres inclined plane. In this reconstruction the
summit level was lowered to lengthen it from 11 to 28km (6.8 to 17.4 miles)
three locks replaced the eleven between Charleroi and the summit, and seven
locks and the inclined plane replaced the previous twenty-seven on the
Brussels side. The canal was also realigned. The inclined plane is 1432m
(4698ft) long and barges are carried in two independently operated tanks or
caissons whose weight can vary between 5000 and 5700 tonnes according to
the amount of water in the tank. Each tank is attached by cables to a
counterweight of 5200 tonnes which also travels up and down the incline,
and can take four 300 tonne barges or one 1350 tonne barge. There have
been considerable savings in time between Charleroi and Brussels since the
incline was opened in 1968.
This canal links near Charleroi with the Canal de Mons or Canal du
Centre, construction of which began in 1880. This was an extension of the
MonsCondé Canal and in its course there is a change in level near La
Louvière of 66.19m (217.2ft) in 8km (5 miles). Construction was under way at
the same time as the La Fontinettes lift was being built on the Neuffossée
Canal in France, so it was decided that this escarpment should be surmounted
by four lifts and Edwin Clark was engaged as designer. All were to be of the
hydraulic type, but of steel girder construction instead of brick and masonry.
The first, at Houdeng-Goegnies, was opened by King Leopold II on 4 June
1888. The other three, at Houdeng-Aimeries, Bracquegnies and Thieu, were
not opened until 1917. Modernization of this canal will replace the four lifts by
a single lift of 73m (239.5ft) at Strepy-Thieu to take 1350 tonne barges.
The Maas (Meuse) in the east of Belgium has always been a difficult river
because of its variable flow, and canals were proposed to pass the hazardous
PART THREE: TRANSPORT

494
stretches, particularly between Maastricht and ’s Hertogenbosch. The Zuid-
Willemsvaart Canal was built between 1823 and 1826 and was enlarged in
1864–70. Further improvements took place by the construction of the Juliana
Canal, 35.6km (22.1 miles) between 1915 and 1935 replacing the longer and
smaller capacity Zuid-Willemsvaart. A link between the Maas and the Waal
was built between 1920 and 1927 near Nijmegen and the Albert Canal was
built between 1930 and 1940 to link the Meuse near Liège with the Schelde
at Antwerp.
In the west of Belgium the Baudouin Canal has been built between Bruges
and Zeebrugge, and at Ghent a ringvaart, or perimeter canal, circling the city
was completed in 1969. Work on upgrading the line from the Escaut to
Brussels docks will enable it to take 9000 tonne pushtows.
GERMANY
Although Germany as a political unit was a nineteenth-century creation out of
a number of independent states, internal transport by water has been a major
factor in the territory’s economic development over the centuries. It is only,
however, within the last two hundred years that the present waterway network
has evolved, linking the great rivers of the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Oder and
their tributaries. The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal nearing completion in the late
1980s (see p. 499) was conceived centuries ago when Charlemagne saw the
potential value of a link between north-west and south-east Europe. The
construction of the Fossa Carolina, of which traces still remain in the vicinity
of Weissenburg in Bavaria, was started in AD 793 using demobilized soldiers
and prisoners of war, but it was left unfinished and the fulfilment of the vision
of boats sailing from the North Sea to the Black Sea had to wait for another
thousand years.
Meanwhile the need for improved transport from the salt producing areas
near Lüneburg led to the construction of the Stecknitz Canal linking the Elbe
and the Baltic at Lübeck. Transport had previously been by a devious route

partially overland and partially by water using the rivers Ilnenau and
Delvenau, an almost impossible route because of the interposition of mill
dams. There is a ridge between the Elbe and Lübeck and crossing this
involved a rise on each side to the summit. The Stecknitz Canal, completed at
the end of the fourteenth century, thus became Europe’s first summit level
canal with the first boat passing through in July 1398. It was still a tedious
journey as flash locks were used and boats could take several weeks to travel
its 100km (62 miles). With various alterations to its line and reconstructions to
give greater capacity, the link is continued today as the Elbe-Trave Canal.
Preserved as an industrial monument is the Palmschleuse, a circular lock to the
north of Lauenburg dating from 1734.
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495
On the other side of the country the growing importance of Berlin made it
imperative that transport links should be improved between the Spree in that
city and the Oder. In the early fifteenth century locks had been built on the
Havel and Spree to provide a connection between Berlin and Hamburg and
this was followed in 1540 by a decision to build a canal to the Oder. Lack of
money delayed the start but eventually it was completed in 1620 after the start
of the Thirty Years War (1618–48). It was short-lived: having already started
decaying during the war it ceased to exist soo after its end. Known as the
Finow Canal, it was reconstructed later and now on its third realignment
carries a large tonnage between Germany and Poland.
Further south a second link between Berlin and the Oder was provided by the
Oder-Spree Canal, constructed soon after the Thirty Years War, running
eastwards from Berlin to join the Oder just south of Frankfurt-on-Oder at
Briekow. It was completed in 1669 and was important for the westbound traffic
from the Silesian coalfield. It was also the third European summit level canal.
The needs of Berlin were still not satisfied and two further canals were built in
the eighteen century, thus creating in Berlin a focal point of the German

waterway system: the Plaue Canal, now known as the Elbe-Havel Canal, built in
1743–6 linking the Elbe north of Magdebury to the Havel at the Plauer See near
Berlin, and in the east as improved Finow Canal built in 1744–51 to rein-state the
link between Berlin and the northern Oder leading to Stettin.
The aftermath of the Thirty Year War also led to suggestions for
improvements to the River Ruhr to provide transport from the coal measures
being exploited in the valley. The nobility of Kleve, part of the domains of the
Elector of Brandendurg, persuaded the Elector to allow the canalization of the
Ruhr in order to supplement the shortage of supplies of coal in the Duchy of
Kleve. Nothing, however, was done until 1768 when Frederick II gave
permission for a Dutch financial company to transport coal down to the dock
on the Rhine at Ruhrort. This dock had been developed in 1716 and its
subsequent importance, generated by the coal traffic together with the rise of
Duisburg, led ultimately to the present-day inland port of Duisburg-Ruhrort on
the Rhine—the largest inland waterway port in Europe.
At first the canalization of the Ruhr was ill-conceived for, when in 1722 coal
began to be shipped downstream from Witten, the river was impeded by fixed
dams at each of which the coal, and other cargoes, had to be transhipped to
barges lying in the pound below. A few years later the merchants suggested
building locks and, after disputes with millowners and those enjoying fishing
rights on the river, these were constructed in timber. In 1837–42 the locks were
reconstructed in stone and the capacity of the barges steadily increased from
30 tonnes to 150–180 tonnes. Following competition from the railways in the
1860s and 1870s, traffic had virtually ceased by 1890.
However, it was in the nineteenth century that the great surge forward came
in German waterway construction, accompanied by the use of a more
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496
sophisticated technology which has continued to the present day. This was
presaged by the creation of a navigation on the Ems in 183 5 as the Haneken

Canal and on the Lippe in 1840 from the Rhine to Lippstadt, and each of
these canals led to the building of larger canals to serve the Westphalian
industrial development.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century authorization was given for the
Nord-Ostsee Canal, or Kiel Canal, linking the Baltic at Kiel with the North
Sea at Brunsbüttel. This is a major ship canal for large sea-going vessels and
designed to eliminate the long haul round the north of Denmark. Work started
in 1887 and the canal was opened in 1895. Ships at that time still carried tall
masts, so the bridges were necessarily at a high level which caused structural
design problems, as the terrain through which the canal passes is generally flat.
The most interesting construction was the transporter bridge at Rendsburg
which, uniquely among such bridges, also carries a main railway line over the
upper girders. It also remains one of the very few transporter bridges still in
use. At present the only alternative to the high bridges are the vehicle ferries
which have to cross through the very high density of canal traffic. Since
opening the canal has been widened and deepened and such work is still
continuing. The present width is being increased from just over loom (328ft) to
160m (525ft) over its whole length of 99m (61.5 miles).
In 1886 the 269km (167 miles) Dortmund-Ems Canal was authorized to
link the Ruhr industrial area with Emden and the North Sea. The canal was
completed in 1899 and it, too, contained technical innovations. It was
promoted to provide an all-German waterway for the Ruhr basin traffic, thus
avoiding the Rhine passage through the Netherlands. The northern end near
Emden incorporated the earlier Haneken Canal whose capacity was
improved. At the southern end Dortmund is situated at a higher level than
the main line of the canal. There is a scarp at Henrichenburg about I5km
(9.3 miles) west of Dortmund with a difference in level of 13.5m (44.3ft).
With the success of the Anderton and Fontinettes lifts in England and France
in mind, the authorities decided to install a lift but on a different principle.
Construction was by Haniel and Lueg of Dusseldorf and started in 1894.

The method of operation consisted of mounting the tank on five floats
known as schwimmers positioned in wells. The wells were 9.2m (30.2ft) in
diameter and 30m (98.4ft) deep and were axially in line below the tank. The
floats were 8.3m (27.2ft) diameter and 12m (39.4ft) high. The tank, 70m
(229.7ft) long and 8.6m (28.2ft) wide, with the floats comprised a single unit
whose rise and fall was constrained by vertical iron guides in the
superstructure. The whole system is very carefully balanced so that if excess
pressure is applied, by increasing the volume of water in the tank, the system
will sink and if the pressure is decreased it will rise. It should be emphasized
that the schwimmer is a true float and not a piston. As traffic increased it was
decided to supplement the lift with a shaft lock which would also act as
INLAND WATERWAYS
497
reserve in case of lift failure. The shaft lock was built between 1908 and
1917, completion being delayed by the First World War. Because the upper
pound to Dortmund has no major feeder, water has to be pumped back from
the lower pound to compensate for that passing through the lock, and in
order to minimize the loss of water ten side ponds were constructed, five on
each side on five different levels, into which water from the lock can be
directed during emptying and the water used again to fill the lock.
Meanwhile, the canal below the Henrichenburg lift was linked to the Rhine
at Duisburg-Ruhrort by the Rhine-Herne Canal in 1914 and in the same year
the improved navigation, the Wessel-Datteln Canal, was opened on the line of
the old Lippe Navigation. Thus two important links were completed between
the Rhine, the industrial area north of the Ruhr and the North Sea.
Further north an east-west link between the Rhine and the Elbe was
proposed in the late nineteenth century but authorization for construction,
including an intermediate connection at Minden with the Weser, was not given
until 1905. The plan included a lock-free length of 211km (131 miles). By
1916 the waterway, the Mittelland Canal, was open to Hanover but it did not

reach the Elbe until 1938. Three major engineering projects were successfully
undertaken on this canal. At Minden a masonry aqueduct 375m (1230.3ft)
long crosses the Weser valley and at the western end of the aqueduct is a shaft
lock which, uniquely, has enclosed side ponds and connects the canal and the
river. There are also two locks at the eastern end of the aqueduct linking the
two waterways. The third major work is the lift at Rothensee near Magdeburg,
now in East Germany. This took several years to build and works on the same
principle as the Henrichenburg lift but is balanced on two floats. It was
intended as a link with the Elbe and the main line of the canal was to cross the
river on another great aqueduct. Because of the Second World War and the
changed political situation, with Germany divided into two states, the
aqueduct was never constructed. Vessels have to descend the lift, cross the Elbe
on the level and then rise by locks to the level of the Elbe-Havel Canal.
Yet another east-west link was completed in the north in 1935 with the
construction of the Küsten Canal between the Ems at Dörpen via Oldenburg
to the river Hunte which in turn flows into the Weser at Elsfleth. This is a
major waterway taking 1000 tonne craft. It also connects with smaller canals
such as the Elisabeth-Fehn Canal with locks 27.6m (90.6ft) long and 54m
(17.7ft) wide as against 105m (344.5ft) long and 12m (39.4ft) wide on the
Küsten Canal.
In the east traffic increased on the Hohenzollern Canal, formerly the Finow
Canal, and now the Havel-Oder Canal in East Germany, causing delays at the
four locks at Niederfinow, north-east of Berlin. In 1926 work started on
replacing the locks with a single counterweighted lift and this was completed in
1934 to become the highest lift (36m) in the world at the time. It is in constant
use today for traffic to and from Poland.
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498
Increased traffic on the Dortmund-Ems Canal was also giving rise to
problems with the lift and shaft lock at Henrichenburg, so in 1958

construction of a new lift was started using the same principle of floats as in
the original structure but supporting the tank on two instead of five. The tank
was also designed to take 1350 tonne barges. This was brought into use in
1962, although the old lift continued in operation until 1970 when it was
scheduled for scrap. Later it was reprieved, to be preserved as an industrial
monument. Traffic still continues to be heavy and plans for another shaft lock
have been proposed. Another problem affects this area. The honeycomb of
mine workings has caused so much land subsidence that continuous sheet
piling has to be carried out to maintain the water level in the Dortmund to
Henrichenburg section; fields which were once level with the canal are now
several metres below it.
The problems of variable flow in the Elbe, which carried traffic from
Hamburg to the Mittelland Canal at Magdeburg, together with the
establishment of the political boundary between East and West Germany
running to the west of the Elbe, led to the construction after the Second
World War of another major waterway, the Elbe Seiten Canal, or Elbe
Lateral Canal, which leaves the Elbe near Lauenburg and follows a roughly
southward course parallel to the East/ West German boundary to the
Mittelland Canal near Wolfsburg. Construction began on the 115km (71.5
miles) canal in 1968 and was completed in 1976. It was designed with only
two changes of level—one at Scharnebeck, where boats are transferred from
one level to the other by a lift with two counterweighted tanks, and the other
at Uelzen by an unusual lock. The Scharnebeck lift has a difference of level
of 38m (124.7ft), exceeding the Niederfinow lift, and can take a Europa
barge of 1350 tonnes in a tank loom (328ft) long and 12m (39.4ft) wide.
Some idea of its size can be gained from the facts that the weight of the tank
and water is about 5700 tonnes and each tank is balanced by eight
counterweight sets consisting of 224 laminated concrete discs each weighing
approximately 26.5 tonnes. The eight sets are housed in four concrete
towers. It takes three minutes to overcome the difference in level. The Uelzen

lock is unusual in that most of the structure is above ground and it
compasses a change in level of 23m (75–5ft). As with other deep German
locks there are side ponds to lessen the amount of water passing from the
upper to the lower level during each locking operation. Elaborate pumping
equipment is also installed to transfer water to the upper level.
Charlemagne’s vision of a trans-Europe canal linking the North and Black
Seas was revived by Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, when he ordered a survey in
1828. In 1836 work started on a link between Bamberg on a tributary of the
Main and Kelheim on the Danube and was completed in 1845. Unfortunately
it was of limited capacity and the rivers at each end, though nominally
navigable, were often dangerous, but it proved the feasibility of the link. In
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499
1921 the idea was again revived and two different lines were proposed, the
Rhine-Main-Danube and the Rhine-Neckar-Danube (the Neckar Navigation
had already been greatly improved). The Rhine-Main-Danube was favoured
and became one of the great canal projects of the world. On completion, after
many vicissitudes both political and financial, it will provide a 3500km (2175
miles) long unbroken waterway across Europe.
The Main was canalized for 292km (181.4 miles) from Aschaffenburg to
Bamberg in 1962, following which a new canal section to Nuremberg of 70km
(43.5 miles) was opened on 23 September 1972. There will be a 100km (62.1
miles) link between Nuremberg and Kelheim and the Danube has been
improved between Kelheim and Regensberg. Barrages have been built above
and below Passau at the Kachlet dam and the Jochenstein dam. There will be
16 locks between Bamberg and Kelheim, eleven rising from the Main to the
summit level and five falling to the Danube. On the river sections of the canal
the opportunity has been taken of building hydro-electric power stations
adjacent to the locks to help to pay for the canal construction costs.
THE RHINE

Navigation on the Rhine has been undertaken from time immemorial and over
the centuries its relentless flow has been largely tamed and vessels have been
designed to thrust themselves upstream against the powerful current. The
iniquitous toll system levied by the riparian owners has been abolished,
allowing a greater freedom of navigation and thus assisting trade. Above its
complicated deltaic system (see p. 490) in its middle reaches the Rhine has
benefited from the trade brought to it by the Ruhr, Moselle, Neckar and Main,
as well as by the various canals which have been connected to it.
Its potential as a through route has already been mentioned in connection
with the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal (see p. 498), but it was also anticipated on
a different line in the seventeenth century. Then the Dutch traders wished to
reach their eastern markets without being hampered by the Spanish navy, the
Dunkirk corsairs and the Algerian pirates round Gibraltar. The natural Rhine-
Rhône links were in the hands of Spain or its allies, so in 1635 a plan was
made to reach the Rhône by a navigation through friendly Switzerland. The
proposal was to follow the Rhine above Basle and then by the Aare from
Koblenz near Waldshut through Olten and Solothurn, then through the
Bielersee and by what is now the Zihl Canal to Lake Neuchâtel. A canal would
then be built from Yverdon to near Morges on Lake Leman (Geneva) and so
to the Rhône. The Canal d’Entreroches between Yverdon and Lake Leman
was started in 1638. It reached Entreroches in 1640, a distance of 17km (10.6
miles). A further 8km (5 miles) was built to Cossonay, opened in 1648, but it
never reached Morges. It had crossed the summit level and if it had been
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500
completed would have been the second summit level canal in Europe, instead
of the Canal de Briare (see p. 483). It was improved and enlarged in 1775 but
later abandoned.
In modern times the use of the Rhine’s current for hydro-electric power
generation has enabled substantial locks to be built which permit pushtows to

reach the ports of Strasbourg and Basle. The first vessel direct from Britain to
Basle arrived in 1936. The Swiss Rhine fleet consists of 484 vessels and the
tonnage passing through the port of Basle in 1981 was 83 million tonnes. The
navigable Rhine continues for 14km (8.7 miles) above Basle to Rheinfelden, a
section which includes a new lock built by the Swiss at Birsfelden.
ITALY
In the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan there
is a display of enlargements of Leonardo’s navigation drawings with models
constructed according to those drawings. This is one indication of the early
interest in inland navigation in Italy; another is that in Milan itself there is a
lock gate incorporating a vertically pivoted paddle door of the kind designed
by Leonardo. For here in Milan was one of Europe’s early canals. A
watercourse for supply and irrigation had been built at the end of the twelfth
century from the River Ticino a little below its exit from Lake Maggiore, and
in 1269 it was enlarged and made navigable. It was then known as the
Naviglio Grande and was used to convey marble for the erection of Milan
Cathedral. Where it entered Milan a lock was built to allow the boats to gain
access to the city moat. This lock was the Conca di Viarenna, the lock
chamber of which has been retained as a historic monument dating back to the
end of the fourteenth century. Some 50 years later another canal parallel to the
Ticino was built from the Naviglio Grande through Bereguardo to Pavia,
about 6km (3.7 miles) above the junction of the Ticino and the Po. Soon
afterwards the Martesana Canal was built to link the Adda at Trezzo sull’Adda
with Milan.
The Po is the most important and the greatest river in Italy. It rises to the
west of Turin but does not become navigable as a continuous waterway until
some 75km (46.6 miles) below Turin and then only for small craft. However,
in the lower reaches south of Venice a complicated system of waterways
developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries linking the Po and the
Venetian lagoon near Chioggia. The greatest development in northern Italy

has taken place in the years since the Second World War. The Po has been
improved so as to take 1350 tonne barges and pushtows consisting of a pusher
and one barge. A new inland port has been constructed at Cremona and a new
canal of 63km (39.1 miles) is being excavated from there to Milan, although
financial restrictions have delayed completion. The Po divides at
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501
Pontelagoscuro, the southern branch running past Ferrara to Porto Garibaldi
while the northern branch on its way to the Adriatic has a canal leaving from
its north bank at Volta Grimana leading to the Venetian lagoon. This is the Po-
Brondolo Canal and en route it crosses the Pontelongo Canal running to the
west. Another major 1350 tonne canal, the Fissero-Tartaro-Canalbianco Canal,
will bypass part of the lower Po and link the river Mincio with the Po-
Brondolo Canal. A third 1350 tonne canal to Padua will run roughly parallel
with the old Brenta Canal.
GREECE
One of the earliest canals ever conceived was one to provide a waterway across
the Isthmus of Corinth between the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Both Greek and
Roman leaders were mindful of the glory that would follow the creation of the
Corinth Canal, but it was only Nero who attempted the operation. There had
been, and indeed it continued after Nero’s efforts, a plan by which ships could
be taken across the Isthmus in wheeled cradles running in grooves cut in the
rock, so forming a guided trackway. Nero died before the work was completed.
Several centuries passed before the work was restarted, initially under the
persuasion of Colonal Istvan Türr who obtained a concession from the Greek
king in 1882. The company went bankrupt in 1889 and construction was then
taken over by a Greek company which completed the cutting in 1893. Much of
the work was excavation through solid rock to a depth of 300 to 450m (984 to
1476ft). The canal, slightly more than 6km (3.7 miles) long, obviated a sea
passage of some 320km (199 miles) round the south of Greece. It was closed

by the Germans in 1944, restored and reopened after the war, and damaged
again in an earthquake in 1953, since when it has been reopened.
SWEDEN
Belief in the feasibility of a navigation across Sweden from the Kattegat to the
Baltic, to avoid the long haul round southern Sweden and to give security from
attack by enemy forces, dates back many centuries. Although vessels had
regularly used the Göta river their passage was impeded by the falls at Lilla
Edet and more so by the falls and escarpment at Trollhättan. The first Swedish
lock was built at Lilla Edet in 1607; although it was burnt in 1611 it was
subsequently reinstated. At the same time a new line, the Karls Grav, was
started from Vänersborg on Lake Vänern through Vassbotton to join the Göta
river above the Trollhätten falls, but it was not completed until 1752. It had
one lock at Brinkebergskulle. This remains Sweden’s oldest canal. Meanwhile,
in 1718, Christopher Polhem, the famous Swedish engineer, was commissioned