Canals

Maximum width of a narrowboat		7 feet
Maximum permitted speed on UK canals		4 mph

Bridgewater Canal (Worsley to Manchester) opened		1761
Suez Canal opened		1869
Manchester Ship Canal opened		1894 (1 January)
Kiel Canal opened		1895
Panama Canal:	Construction started	1904 (4 July)
Panama Canal:	Official opening	1914 (5 August)
Length of the Panama Canal		77km (48 miles)
Length of the Suez Canal		192 km (120 miles)
Number of locks on the Suez Canal		None

Term used for the stretch of water between two locks		Pound
Term used for a widened section of a canal, used for turning boats around		Winding hole

Built in the 1930s and named for the king who ruled Belgium from 1909 to 1934; connects the Scheldt river at Antwerp with the Meuse at Liège		Albert Canal
Village near Northwich, Cheshire: gives its name to the lift that transports boats between the Weaver Navigation and the Trent & Mersey Canal, overcoming the 50–foot height difference; built in 1875, closed in 1983 due to corrosion; re–opened in 2002 after restoration		Anderton
English city, has 26 miles of canals – more than Venice (but over a much greater area); Gas Street canal basin; "the hub of [Britain's] canal network" (Wikipedia)		Birmingham
Series of 12 locks on the Macclesfield Canal – the only locks on it		Bosley
Opened in 1761, from Worsley to Manchester: started the boom in canal building in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution		Bridgewater Canal
Links to the Manchester Ship Canal, the Rochdale Canal, the Trent & Mersey Canal, and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. (Once connected with the River Mersey, at Runcorn, but has been cut off by a road)		Bridgewater Canal
Designer and builder of the Bridgewater Canal		James Brindley
Links the rivers Yonne and Saône, thus connecting the Seine and the Rhine		Burgundy Canal
Famous flight of locks – 29 altogether – on the Kennet & Avon Canal, just west of Devizes, Wiltshire		Caen Hill Locks
Fort William to Inverness; links Loch Linnhe to the Moray Firth, via the Great Glen (i.e. Loch Ness)		Caledonian Canal
Links Toulouse to the Mediterranean; the first canal to have a tunnel built using explosives (15th century)		Canal du Midi (Midi or Languedoc Canal)
Canal locks were invented in		China
Cuts through the isthmus of the same name, to link the Aegean and Ionian seas; just under 4 miles long, separates the Peloponnesian peninsula from the rest of mainland Greece; completed in 1893, having first been proposed in ancient times		Corinth Canal
Manchester Ship Canal meets the Mersey at		Eastham Locks
Links Albany to Buffalo (both cities in New York state); links New York to the Great Lakes, via the Hudson River		Erie Canal
The world's first rotating boat lift – opened in 2002, joins the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal to reconnect Glasgow and Edinburgh		Falkirk Wheel
The oldest canal in Britain – built by the Romans around 120 AD and still in use – links the Trent at Torksey, Lincolnshire to the Witham at Lincoln		Foss Dyke or Fossdyke
Name shared by the world's longest canal, and one of its oldest (China: Beijing to Hangzhou – 1,115 miles / 1,794 km), the major canal in Venice (crossed by the Rialto bridge), and the canal that links Dublin to the River Shannon		Grand Canal
Runs from the Thames at Brentford (West London) to Bordesley Junction (Birmingham)		Grand Union Canal
Runs from Newbury to Bath, joining two rivers		Kennet and Avon
Opened in 1895, and widened between 1907 and 1914 to allow the passage of a Dreadnought–sized battleship: links the Baltic to the North Sea; runs through the Schleswig–Holstein state (Land) of Germany		Kiel Canal
Runs through the centre of Wigan, meaning that if Wigan Pier ever existed it was on the		Leeds and Liverpool Canal
French engineer and diplomat: directed the construction of the Suez Canal (1859–69); also made an unsuccessful attempt to build a canal through Panama, in the 1880s		Ferdinand de Lesseps
Name coined in the 1980s for parts of the historic Ellesmere Canal and its navigable feeder – both of which became part of the Shropshire Union Canals in 1846		Llangollen Canal
Carried over the River Dee by the Pontcyssyllte aqueduct		Llangollen Canal
Runs from Marple, near Stockport in Greater Manchester, to join the Trent and Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove, near Stoke–on–Trent (Staffordshire)		Macclesfield Canal
Trinidad Turn, Orchid Turn, Balboa Reach, Miraflores Locks, Pedro Miguel Locks, Gatun Locks, Gaillard Cut (formerly known as the Culebra Cut)		Panama Canal
Runs from Dukinfield Junction in Tameside, Greater Manchester, to Bugsworth Basin at Buxworth, Derbyshire, with a branch to nearby Whaley Bridge		Peak Forest Canal
The oldest continuously operated canal system in North America – opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site; connects Ottawa to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River; name is a French word for a screen or curtain, after the waterfall where the river of the same name empties into the Ottawa river at the same place as the canal		Rideau Canal
Runs for 28 miles between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings, following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh; constructed as a defence against the possible invasion of England during the Napoleonic Wars		Royal Military Canal
Provides sea access to the Great Lakes		St. Lawrence Seaway
Canal linking St. Helens to the River Mersey: built four years before the Bridgewater and can thus claim to be the first canal in modern Britain		Sankey Brook Navigation (a.k.a. Sankey Canal)
Links the canal system of the West Midlands, at Wolverhampton, with the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire – 66 miles (106 km) away		Shropshire Union
Britain's longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel – 5,500 yards long – on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, between Diggle (near Oldham) and Marsden (near Huddersfield); closed in 1943, re–opened in 2001; also the name of three railway tunnels, only one of which is still in use		Standedge tunnel
The Great and Little Bitter Lakes form part of the		Suez Canal
Builder of the Caledonian Canal, and of what's now known as the Llangollen Canal (including the spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct over the River Dee)		Thomas Telford
Links lakes Erie and Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls		Welland Canal

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Canals