I’d love to spend a few weeks on a narrowboat traveling through the canals and inland waterways of Great Britain. The nation offers literally thousands of miles of publicly-accessible routes with much of it interconnected into a single system, allowing one to experience the countryside at four miles per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article isn’t so much about the canal network itself. Other websites such as Scottish Canals<\/a> and the Inland Waterways Association<\/a> already provide all the information one might need. Rather, this is about some of the unusual engineering features found along these waterways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While I’m sure I’d be completely content as I puttered through the British countryside, I’d certainly point a course towards the extremes and the oddities. Water doesn’t necessarily flow where man may want it to go. People need to channel, corral and coax it to form a suitable transportation network. Engineers and designers came up with some rather ingenious solutions from the late 18th Century through the middle of the 19th Century in those early years of the industrial revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does a hillside block the intended watercourse? No problem. Dig a tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nTunnels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n