• Canal 3 Live
• Canal 33 El Salvador
• Canal 337

• Contents[show] 1956-1979 1979-1987 1988-1995 1995-2003 2003-present.
• Georgetown University Canal Road Entrance Federal Highway Administration Final Environmental Impact Statement LIST OF FIGURES (Continued). 9-2 9—3 View of C&O Canal Historic Park. 3-13 3-4 Trafiic Volumes - Daily and Peak Hours, Entrances to Main Academic Campus, 1982-1988-1993.

3 The C&D Canal 3-D Hydrodynamic Model A fully 3-D, time-dependent, numerical model of the C&D Canal and adjacent estuaries has been developed. In this study, particular care was given to the incorporation of the ocean forcing functions, surface wind stress, and freshwater runoff. Minor modifications of the CH3D.

The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس‎ qanāt as-suwēs) is a sea-levelwaterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. Constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, it was officially opened on 17 November 1869. The canal offers watercraft a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean and Red seas, thus avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and thereby reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to London, for example, by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi).^[1] It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi), including its northern and southern access channels. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 47 per day).^[2]

The original canal was a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake.^[3] It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.^[4]

The Canal was owned by the United Kingdom and France until 1956 when Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it, an event which led to the Suez Crisis.^[5] The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority^[6] (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used 'in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag'.^[7]

In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed the canal's transit time. The expansion was planned to nearly double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.^[8] At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals. The 'New Suez Canal', as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015.^[9]

On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel. This side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while the convoy was running.^[10]

• 1Precursors
• 2History
  • 2.2Construction by the Suez Canal Company
• 3Layout and operation
• 4Alternative routes

Precursors[edit]

Ancient west–east canals were built to facilitate travel from the Nile River to the Red Sea.^[11][12][13] One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II^[14] or Ramesses II.^[11][12][13] Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first,^[11][12] was constructed under the reign of Necho II, but the only fully functional canal was engineered and completed by Darius I.^[11][12][13]

Second millennium BCE[edit]

The legendary Sesostris (likely either Pharaoh Senusret II or Senusret III of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt^[14][15]) may have started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea (1897 BCE – 1839 BCE), when an irrigation channel was constructed around 1850 BCE that was navigable during the flood season, leading into a dry river valley east of the Nile River Delta named Wadi Tumilat.^[16] (It is said that in ancient times the Red Sea reached northward to the Bitter Lakes^[11][12] and Lake Timsah.^[17][18])

In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote:

One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.^[19]

Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote:

165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.^[20]

In the second half of the 19th century, French cartographers discovered the remnants of an ancient north–south canal past the east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake.^[21] This proved to be the celebrated canal made by the Persian king Darius I, as his stele commemorating its construction was found at the site. (This ancient, second canal may have followed a course along the shoreline of the Red Sea when it once extended north to Lake Timsah.^[18][21]) In the 20th century the northward extension of this ancient canal was discovered, extending from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes.^[22] This was dated to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites along its course.^[22]

The reliefs of the Punt expedition under Hatshepsut, 1470 BCE, depict seagoing vessels carrying the expeditionary force returning from Punt. This suggests that a navigable link existed between the Red Sea and the Nile.^[23] Recent excavations in Wadi Gawasis may indicate that Egypt's maritime trade started from the Red Sea and did not require a canal.^{[citation needed]} Evidence seems to indicate its existence by the 13th century BCE during the time of Ramesses II.^{[11][24][25][26]}

Canals dug by Necho, Darius I and Ptolemy[edit]

Remnants of an ancient west–east canal through the ancient Egyptian cities of Bubastis, Pi-Ramesses, and Pithom were discovered by Napoleon Bonaparte and his engineers and cartographers in 1799.^{[12][27][28][29][30]}

According to the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus,^[31] about 600 BCE, Necho II undertook to dig a west–east canal through the Wadi Tumilat between Bubastis and Heroopolis,^[12] and perhaps continued it to the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea.^[11] Regardless, Necho is reported as having never completed his project.^[11][12]

Herodotus was told that 120,000 men perished in this undertaking, but this figure is doubtless exaggerated.^[32] According to Pliny the Elder, Necho's extension to the canal was about 57 English miles,^[12] equal to the total distance between Bubastis and the Great Bitter Lake, allowing for winding through valleys.^[12] The length that Herodotus tells, of over 1000 stadia (i.e., over 114 miles (183 km)), must be understood to include the entire distance between the Nile and the Red Sea^[12] at that time.

With Necho's death, work was discontinued. Herodotus tells that the reason the project was abandoned was because of a warning received from an oracle that others would benefit from its successful completion.^[12][33] Necho's war with Nebuchadnezzar II most probably prevented the canal's continuation.

Necho's project was completed by Darius I of Persia, who ruled over Ancient Egypt after it had been conquered by his predecessor Cambyses II.^[34] It may be that by Darius's time a natural^[12] waterway passage which had existed^[11] between the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea^[35] in the vicinity of the Egyptian town of Shaluf^[12] (alt. Chalouf^[36] or Shaloof^[18]), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake,^[12][18] had become so blocked^[11] with silt^[12] that Darius needed to clear it out so as to allow navigation^[12] once again. According to Herodotus, Darius's canal was wide enough that two triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and required four days to traverse. Darius commemorated his achievement with a number of granitestelae that he set up on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, and a further one a few miles north of Suez. The Darius Inscriptions read:^[37]

Saith King Darius: I am a Persian. Setting out from Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug from the river called the Nile that flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. When the canal had been dug as I ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, even as I intended.

The canal left the Nile at Bubastis. An inscription^[38] on a pillar at Pithom records that in 270 or 269 BCE, it was again reopened, by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In Arsinoe,^[12] Ptolemy constructed a navigable lock, with sluices, at the Heroopolite Gulf of the Red Sea,^[35] which allowed the passage of vessels but prevented salt water from the Red Sea from mingling with the fresh water in the canal.^[39]

Receding Red Sea and the dwindling Nile[edit]

The Red Sea is believed by some historians to have gradually receded over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving southward away from Lake Timsah^[17][18] and the Great Bitter Lake.^[11][12] Coupled with persistent accumulations of Nile silt, maintenance and repair of Ptolemy's canal became increasingly cumbersome over each passing century.

Two hundred years after the construction of Ptolemy's canal, Cleopatra seems to have had no west–east waterway passage,^[11][12] because the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which fed Ptolemy's west–east canal, had by that time dwindled, being choked with silt.^[11][12]

Old Cairo to the Red Sea[edit]

By the 8th century, a navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea,^[11][12] but accounts vary as to who ordered its construction—either Trajan or 'Amr ibn al-'As, or Omar the Great.^[11][12] This canal was reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo^[12] and ended near modern Suez.^[11][40] A geography treatise by Dicuil reports a conversation with an English monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the 8th century^[41]

The AbbasidCaliphal-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.^[11][12]

Repair by al-Ḥākim[edit]

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is claimed to have repaired the Cairo to Red Sea passageway,^[11][12] but only briefly, circa 1000 CE,^[11][12] as it soon 'became choked with sand'.^[12] However, we are told that parts of this canal still continued to fill in during the Nile's annual inundations.^[11][12]

Conception by Venice[edit]

The successful 1488 navigation of southern Africa by Bartolomeu Dias opened a direct maritime trading route to India and the spice islands, and forever changed the balance of Mediterranean trade. One of the most prominent losers in the new order, as former middlemen, was the former spice trading center of Venice.

Venetian leaders, driven to desperation, contemplated digging a waterway between the Red Sea and the Nile—anticipating the Suez Canal by almost 400 years—to bring the luxury trade flooding to their doors again. But this remained a dream.

Despite entering negotiations with Egypt's ruling Mamelukes, the Venetian plan to build the canal was quickly put to rest by the Ottomanconquest of Egypt in 1517, led by Sultan Selim I.^[42]

Ottoman attempts[edit]

During the 16th century, the Ottoman Grand VizierSokollu Mehmed Pasha attempted to construct a canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This was motivated by a desire to connect Constantinople to the pilgrimage and trade routes of the Indian Ocean, as well as by strategic concerns—as the European presence in the Indian Ocean was growing, Ottoman mercantile and strategic interests were increasingly challenged, and the Sublime Porte was increasingly pressed to assert its position. A navigable canal would allow the Ottoman Navy to connect its Red Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean fleets. However, this project was deemed too expensive, and was never completed.^[43][44]

Napoleon's discovery of an ancient canal[edit]

During the French campaign in Egypt and Syria in late 1798, Napoleon showed an interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage. This culminated in a cadre of archaeologists, scientists, cartographers and engineers scouring northern Egypt.^[45][46] Their findings, recorded in the Description de l'Égypte, include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.^[45][47]

Later, Napoleon, who would become French Emperor in 1804, contemplated the construction of a north–south canal to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. But the plan was abandoned because it wrongly concluded that the waterway would require locks to operate. These would be very expensive and take a long time to construct. This decision was based on an erroneous belief that the Red Sea was 10 m (33 ft) higher than the Mediterranean. The error was the result of using fragmentary survey measurements taken in wartime during Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition.^[48] In 1819 the Pacha of Egypt undertook some canal work.^[49]

However, as late as 1861, the unnavigable ancient route discovered by Napoleon from Bubastis to the Red Sea still channeled water in spots as far east as Kassassin.^[12]

History[edit]

Interim period[edit]

Although the alleged difference in sea levels could be problematic for construction, the idea of finding a shorter route to the east remained alive. In 1830, F. R. Chesney submitted a report to the British government that stated that there was no difference in elevation and that the Suez Canal was feasible, but his report received no further attention. Lieutenant Waghorn established his 'Overland Route', which transported post and passengers to India via Egypt. Linant de Bellefonds, a French explorer of Egypt, became chief engineer of Egypt's Public Works. In addition to his normal duties, he surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and made plans for the Suez Canal. French Saint-Simonianists showed an interest in the canal and in 1833, Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin tried to draw Muhammad Ali's attention to the canal but was unsuccessful. Alois Negrelli, the Austrian railroad pioneer, became interested in the idea in 1836. In 1846, Prosper Enfantin's Société d'Études du Canal de Suez invited a number of experts, among them Robert Stephenson, Negrelli and Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue to study the feasibility of the Suez Canal (with the assistance of Linant de Bellefonds). Bourdaloue's survey of the isthmus was the first generally accepted evidence that there was no practical difference in altitude between the two seas. Britain, however, feared that a canal open to everyone might interfere with its India trade and therefore preferred a connection by train from Alexandria via Cairo to Suez, which was eventually built by Stephenson.

Construction by the Suez Canal Company[edit]

Preparations (1854–1858)[edit]

In 1854 and 1856, Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. The company was to operate the canal for 99 years from its opening. De Lesseps had used his friendly relationship with Sa'id, which he had developed while he was a French diplomat in the 1830s. As stipulated in the concessions, Ferdinand convened the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez (Commission Internationale pour le percement de l'isthme des Suez) consisting of 13 experts from seven countries, among them John Robinson McClean, later President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and again Negrelli, to examine the plans developed by Linant de Bellefonds, and to advise on the feasibility of and the best route for the canal. After surveys and analyses in Egypt and discussions in Paris on various aspects of the canal, where many of Negrelli's ideas prevailed, the commission produced a unanimous report in December 1856 containing a detailed description of the canal complete with plans and profiles.^[50] The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez) came into being on 15 December 1858.

Construction (1859–1869)[edit]

Work started on the shore of the future Port Said on 25 April 1859.

The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour (corvée) of Egyptian workers during the first years. Some sources estimate that over 30,000 people were working on the canal at any given period, that more than 1.5 million people from various countries were employed, and that thousands of labourers died, many of them from cholera and similar epidemics.^[51][52]

The British government had opposed the project from the outset to its completion. As one of the diplomatic moves against the canal, it disapproved of the use of 'slave labour' of forced workers. The British Empire was the major global naval force and officially condemned the forced work and sent armed Bedouins to start a revolt among workers. Involuntary labour on the project ceased, and the viceroy condemned the corvée, halting the project.^[53]

Angered by the British opportunism, de Lesseps sent a letter to the British government remarking on the British lack of remorse a few years earlier when forced workers died in similar conditions building the British railway in Egypt.

Initially international opinion was skeptical and Suez Canal Company shares did not sell well overseas. Britain, Austria, and Russia did not buy a significant number of shares. However, with assistance from the Cattaui banking family, and their relationship with James de Rothschild of the French House of Rothschild bonds and shares were successfully promoted in France and other parts of Europe.^[54] All French shares were quickly sold in France. A contemporary British skeptic claimed 'One thing is sure... our local merchant community doesn't pay practical attention at all to this grand work, and it is legitimate to doubt that the canal's receipts... could ever be sufficient to recover its maintenance fee. It will never become a large ship's accessible way in any case.'^[55]

Inauguration (17 November 1869)[edit]

The canal opened under French control on 17 November 1869. The opening was performed by KhediveIsma'il Pasha of Egypt and Sudan, and at Ismail's invitation French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht L'Aigle piloted by Napoléon Coste, upon whom the Khedive bestowed the OttomanOrder of the Medjidie.

Although L'Aigle was officially the first vessel through the canal, HMS Newport, captained by George Nares, passed through it first. On the night before the canal was due to open, Captain Nares navigated his vessel, in total darkness and without lights, through the mass of waiting ships until it was in front of L'Aigle. When dawn broke, the French were horrified to find that the Royal Navy was first in line and that it would be impossible to pass them. Nares received both an official reprimand and an unofficial vote of thanks from the Admiralty for his actions in promoting British interests and for demonstrating such superb seamanship.^[56]

An Anchor Line ship, the S.S. Dido, became the first to pass through the Canal from South to North.^[57][58]

The first ship to follow L'Aigle through the canal was the British P&O liner Delta.^[59][60] Fourth ship through the canal was the Swedish steam frigate Vanadis.^[61]

Initial difficulties (1869–1871)[edit]

Although numerous technical, political, and financial problems had been overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate.

The Khedive, in particular, was able to overcome initial reservations held by both British and French creditors by enlisting the help of the Sursock family, whose deep connections proved invaluable in securing much international support for the project.^[62][63]

After the opening, the Suez Canal Company was in financial difficulties. The remaining works were completed only in 1871, and traffic was below expectations in the first two years. De Lesseps therefore tried to increase revenues by interpreting the kind of net ton referred to in the second concession (tonneau de capacité) as meaning a ship's cargo capacity and not only the theoretical net tonnage of the 'Moorsom System' introduced in Britain by the Merchant Shipping Act in 1854. The ensuing commercial and diplomatic activities resulted in the International Commission of Constantinople establishing a specific kind of net tonnage and settling the question of tariffs in its protocol of 18 December 1873.^[64] This was the origin of the Suez Canal Net Tonnage and the Suez Canal Special Tonnage Certificate, both of which are still in use today.

Company rule after opening[edit]

The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. Combined with the American transcontinental railroad completed six months earlier, it allowed the world to be circled in record time. It played an important role in increasing European colonization of Africa. The construction of the canal was one of the reasons for the Panic of 1873, because goods from the Far East were carried in sailing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and were stored in British warehouses. An inability to pay his bank debts led Said Pasha's successor, Isma'il Pasha, in 1875 to sell his 44% share in the canal for £4,000,000 ($19.2 million) equivalent to ₤432 million to ₤456 million ($540 million to $570 million) to the government of the United Kingdom.^[65] French shareholders still held the majority.^[66] Local unrest caused the British to invade in 1882 and take full control, although nominally Egypt remained part of the Ottoman Empire. The British representative 1883 to 1907 was Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, who reorganized and modernized the government and suppressed rebellions and corruption, thereby facilitating increased traffic on the canal.^[67]

The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British, who had occupied Egypt and Sudan at the request of KhediveTewfiq to suppress the Urabi Revolt against his rule. The revolt went on from 1879 to 1882. As a result of British involvement on the side of Khedive Tewfiq, Britain gained control of the canal in 1882. The British defended the strategically important passage against a major Ottomanattack in 1915, during the First World War.^[68] Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the UK retained control over the canal. The canal was again strategically important in the 1939–1945 Second World War, and Italo-German attempts to capture it were repulsed during the North Africa Campaign, during which the canal was closed to Axis shipping. In 1951 Egypt repudiated the treaty and in October 1954 the UK agreed to remove its troops. Withdrawal was completed on 18 July 1956.

Suez Crisis[edit]

Because of Egyptian overtures towards the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser responded by nationalizing the canal on 26 July 1956^[69] and transferring it to the Suez Canal Authority, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal. On the same day that the canal was nationalized Nasser also closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli ships.^[70] This led to the Suez Crisis in which the UK, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. According to the pre-agreed war plans under the Protocol of Sèvres, the Israelis invaded the Sinai Peninsula on 29 October, forcing Egypt to engage them militarily, and allowing the Anglo-French partnership to declare the resultant fighting a threat to stability in the Middle East and enter the war - officially to separate the two forces but in reality to regain the Canal and bring down the Nasser government.

To save the British from what he thought was a disastrous action and to stop the war from a possible escalation, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson proposed the creation of the first United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure access to the canal for all and an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. On 4 November 1956, a majority at the United Nations voted for Pearson's peacekeeping resolution, which mandated the UN peacekeepers to stay in Sinai unless both Egypt and Israel agreed to their withdrawal. The United States backed this proposal by putting pressure on the British government through the selling of sterling, which would cause it to depreciate. Britain then called a ceasefire, and later agreed to withdraw its troops by the end of the year. Pearson was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As a result of damage and ships sunk under orders from Nasser the canal was closed until April 1957, when it was cleared with UN assistance.^[71] A UN force (UNEF) was established to maintain the free navigability of the canal, and peace in the Sinai Peninsula.

Arab–Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973[edit]

In May 1967, Nasser ordered the UN peacekeeping forces out of Sinai, including the Suez Canal area. Israel objected to the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The canal had been closed to Israeli shipping since 1949, except for a short period in 1951–1952.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli forces occupied the Sinai peninsula, including the entire east bank of the Suez Canal. Unwilling to allow the Israelis to use the canal, Egypt immediately imposed a blockade which closed the canal to all shipping. Fifteen cargo ships, known as the 'Yellow Fleet', were trapped in the canal, and would remain there until 1975.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-occupied Sinai and a counter-crossing by the Israeli army to Egypt. Much wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canal's edges.^{[citation needed]}

Mine clearing operations (1974–75)[edit]

After the Yom Kippur War the United States initiated Operation Nimbus Moon. The amphibious assault shipUSS Inchon (LPH-12) was sent to the Canal, carrying 12 RH-53D minesweeping helicopters of HM-12. These partly cleared the canal between May and December 1974. She was relieved by the LST USS Barnstable County (LST1197). The British Royal Navy initiated Operation Rheostat and Task Group 65.2 provided for Operation Rheostat One^[72] (six months in 1974), the minehunters HMS Maxton, HMS Bossington, and HMS Wilton, the Fleet Clearance Diving Team (FCDT)^[73] and HMS Abdiel, a practice minelayer/MCMV support ship; and for Operation Rheostat Two^[74] (six months in 1975) the minehunters HMS Hubberston and HMS Sheraton, and HMS Abdiel. When the Canal Clearance Operations were completed, the canal and its lakes were considered 99% clear of mines. The canal was then reopened by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat aboard an Egyptian destroyer, which led the first convoy northbound to Port Said in 1975.^[75] At his side stood the Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, delegated to represent his father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The cruiser USS Little Rock was the only American naval ship in the convoy.^[76]

UN presence[edit]

The UNEF mandate expired in 1979. Despite the efforts of the United States, Israel, Egypt, and others to obtain an extension of the UN role in observing the peace between Israel and Egypt, as called for under the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty of 1979, the mandate could not be extended because of the veto by the Soviet Union in the UN Security Council, at the request of Syria. Accordingly, negotiations for a new observer force in the Sinai produced the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), stationed in Sinai in 1981 in coordination with a phased Israeli withdrawal. It is there under agreements between the United States, Israel, Egypt, and other nations.^[77]

Bypass expansion[edit]

In the summer of 2014, months after taking office as President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered the expansion of the Ballah Bypass from 61 metres (200 ft) wide to 312 metres (1,024 ft) wide for 35 kilometres (22 mi). The project was called the New Suez Canal, as it would allow ships to transit the canal in both directions simultaneously.^[78][79] The project cost more than $8 billion and was completed within one year. Sisi declared the expanded channel open for business in a ceremony on 6 August 2015.^[80]

Timeline[edit]

• Circa 1799: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Egypt and orders a feasibility analysis. This reports a supposed 10-metre (33 ft) difference in sea levels and a high cost, so the project is put on hold.
• Circa 1840: A second survey finds the first analysis incorrect. A direct link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea is possible and not as expensive as previously estimated.
• 30 November 1854: The former French consul in Cairo, Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, obtains the first license for construction and subsequent operation from the Viceroy for a period of 99 years.
• 6 January 1856: de Lesseps is provided with a second, more detailed license.
• 15 December 1858: de Lesseps establishes the 'Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez', with Said Pasha acquiring 22% of the Suez Canal Company; the majority is controlled by French private holders.
• 25 April 1859: construction officially starts.
• 17 November 1869: The canal is opened, owned and operated by Suez Canal Company.
• 18 December 1873: The International Commission of Constantinople establishes the Suez Canal Net Ton and the Suez Canal Special Tonnage Certificate (as known today)
• 25 November 1875: Britain becomes a minority share holder in the company, acquiring 44%, with the remainder being controlled by French business syndicates.
• 20 May 1882: Britain invades Egypt, with French assistance, and begins its occupation of Egypt.
• 25 August 1882: Britain takes control of the canal.
• 2 March 1888: The Convention of Constantinople renews the guaranteed right of passage of all ships through the canal during war and peace; these rights were already part of the licenses awarded to de Lesseps, but are recognised as international law.
• 14 November 1936: Following a new treaty, Britain theoretically pulls out of Egypt, but establishes the 'Suez Canal Zone' under its control.
• 13 June 1956: Suez Canal Zone is restored to Egyptian sovereignty, following British withdrawal and years of negotiations.
• 26 July 1956: Egypt nationalizes the company; its Egyptian assets, rights and obligations are transferred to the Suez Canal Authority, which compensates the previous owners at the established pre-nationalization price. Egypt closes the canal to Israeli shipping as part of a broader blockade involving the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba.
• 31 October 1956 to 24 April 1957: the canal is blocked to shipping following the Suez Crisis, a conflict that leads to an Israeli, French and British occupation of the canal zone.
• 22 December 1956: The canal zone is restored to Egyptian control, following French and British withdrawal, and the landing of UNEF troops.
• 5 June 1967 to 10 June 1975: the canal is blocked by Egypt, following the war with Israel; it becomes the front line during the ensuing War of Attrition and the 1973 war, remaining closed to international shipping, until general agreement was near.
• 1 January 2008: New rules of navigation passed by the Suez Canal Authority come into force.
• 6 August 2015: The new canal extensions are opened.

• Suez Canal in February 1934. Air photograph taken by Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer

• USS America (CV-66), an American aircraft carrier in the Suez Canal

• Container ship Hanjin Kaohsiung transiting the Suez Canal

Layout and operation[edit]

When built, the canal was 164 km (102 mi) long and 8 m (26 ft) deep. After several enlargements, it is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long, 24 m (79 ft) deep and 205 metres (673 ft) wide.^[82] It consists of the northern access channel of 22 km (14 mi), the canal itself of 162.25 km (100.82 mi) and the southern access channel of 9 km (5.6 mi).^[83]

The so-called New Suez Canal, functional since 6 August 2015,^[84] currently has a new parallel canal in the middle part, with its length over 35 km (22 mi). The current parameters of the Suez Canal, including both individual canals of the parallel section are: depth 23 to 24 metres (75 to 79 ft) and width at least 205 to 225 metres (673 to 738 ft) (that width measured at 11 metres (36 ft) of depth).^[85]

Capacity[edit]

The canal allows passage of ships up to 20 m (66 ft) draft or 240,000 deadweight tons and up to a height of 68 m (223 ft) above water level and a maximum beam of 77.5 m (254 ft) under certain conditions.^[86][87] The canal can handle more traffic and larger ships than the Panama Canal, as Suezmax dimensions are greater than both Panamax and New Panamax. Some supertankers are too large to traverse the canal. Others can offload part of their cargo onto a canal-owned boat to reduce their draft, transit, and reload at the other end of the canal.

Navigation[edit]

The canal has no locks because of the flat terrain, and the minor sea level difference between each end is inconsequential for shipping. As the canal has no sea surge gates, the ports at the ends would be subject to the sudden impact of tsunamis from the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea, according to a 2012 article in the Journal of Coastal Research.^[88]

There is one shipping lane with passing areas in Ballah-Bypass near El Qantara and in the Great Bitter Lake. On a typical day, three convoys transit the canal, two southbound and one northbound. The passage takes between 11 and 16 hours at a speed of around 8 knots (15 km/h; 9 mph). The low speed helps prevent erosion of the banks by ships' wakes.

By 1955, about two-thirds of Europe's oil passed through the canal. Around 8% of world sea trade is carried via the canal. In 2008, 21,415 vessels passed through the canal and the receipts totaled $5,381 billion,^[86] with an average cost per ship of $251,000.

New Rules of Navigation came into force on 1 January 2008, passed by the board of directors of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) to organise vessels' transit. The most important amendments include allowing vessels with 62-foot (19 m) draught to pass, increasing the allowed breadth from 32 metres (105 ft) to 40 metres (130 ft) (following improvement operations), and imposing a fine on vessels using divers from outside the SCA inside the canal boundaries without permission. The amendments allow vessels loaded with dangerous cargo (such as radioactive or flammable materials) to pass if they conform with the latest amendments provided by international conventions.

The SCA has the right to determine the number of tugs required to assist warships traversing the canal, to achieve the highest degree of safety during transit.^[89]

• Ships moored at El Ballah during transit

• Predominant currents in the Mediterranean Sea for June

Operation[edit]

Before August 2015, the canal was too narrow for free two-way traffic, so ships would pass in convoys and use bypasses. The by-passes were 78 km (48 mi) out of 193 km (120 mi) (40%). From north to south, they are: Port Said by-pass (entrances) 36.5 km (23 mi), Ballah by-pass & anchorage, 9 km (6 mi), Timsah by-pass 5 km (3 mi), and the Deversoir by-pass (northern end of the Great Bitter Lake) 27.5 km (17 mi). The bypasses were completed in 1980.

Typically, it would take a ship 12 to 16 hours to transit the canal. The canal's 24-hour capacity was about 76 standard ships.^[90]

In August 2014, Egypt chose a consortium that includes the Egyptian army and global engineering firm Dar Al-Handasah to develop an international industrial and logistics hub in the Suez Canal area,^[91] and began the construction of a new canal section from km 60 to km 95 combined with expansion and deep digging of the other 37 km of the canal.^[92] This will allow navigation in both directions simultaneously in the 72 km long central section of the canal. These extensions were formally opened on 6 August 2015 by President Al-Sisi.^[8][93][94]

• Post-deepening, a capesizebulk carrier approaches the Friendship Bridge

• Northbound convoy waits in the Great Bitter Lake as southbound convoy passes, October 2014

Convoy sailing[edit]

Since the canal does not cater to unregulated two-way traffic, all ships transit in convoys on regular times, scheduled on a 24-hour basis. Each day, a single northbound convoy starts at 04:00 from Suez. At dual lane sections, the convoy uses the eastern route.^[95][96][97] Synchronised with this convoy's passage is the southbound convoy. It starts at 03:30 from Port Said and so passes the Northbound convoy in the two-lane section^{[clarification needed]}.

Canal crossings[edit]

From north to south, the crossings are:

• The Suez Canal Bridge (30°49′42″N32°19′03″E / 30.828248°N 32.317572°E), also called the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, a high-level road bridge at El Qantara. In Arabic, al qantara means 'arch'. Opened in 2001, it has a 70-metre (230 ft) clearance over the canal and was built with assistance from the Japanese government and by Kajima.^[98]
• El Ferdan Railway Bridge (30°39′25″N32°20′02″E / 30.657°N 32.334°E) 20 km (12 mi) north of Ismailia (30°35′N32°16′E / 30.583°N 32.267°E) was completed in 2001 and is the longest swing-span bridge in the world, with a span of 340 m (1100 ft). The previous bridge was destroyed in 1967 during the Arab-Israeli conflict. The current bridge is no longer functional due to the expansion of the Suez Canal, as the parallel shipping lane completed in 2015 just east of the bridge lacks a structure spanning it.
• Pipelines taking fresh water under the canal to Sinai, about 57 km (35 mi) north of Suez, at 30°27.3′N32°21.0′E / 30.4550°N 32.3500°E.
• Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel (30°5′9″N32°34′32″E / 30.08583°N 32.57556°E) south of the Great Bitter Lake (30°20′N32°23′E / 30.333°N 32.383°E) was built in 1983. Because of leakage problems, a new water-tight tunnel^[99] was built inside the old one from 1992 to 1995.
• The Suez Canal overhead powerline crossing (29°59′46″N32°34′59″E / 29.996°N 32.583°E) was built in 1999.

A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire length.

Six new tunnels for cars and trains are also planned across the canal.^[100] Currently the Ahmed Hamdi is the only tunnel connecting Suez to the Sinai.

Alternative routes[edit]

Cape Agulhas[edit]

Canal 3 Live

The main alternative is around Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, commonly referred as the Cape of Good Hope route. This was the only sea route before the canal was constructed, and when the canal was closed. It is still the only route for ships that are too large for the canal. In the early 21st century, the Suez Canal has suffered from diminished traffic due to piracy in Somalia, with many shipping companies choosing to take the long route instead.^[101][102] Between 2008 and 2010, it is estimated that the canal lost 10% of traffic due to the threat of piracy, and another 10% due to the financial crisis. An oil tanker going from Saudi Arabia to the United States has 2,700 mi (4,345 km) longer to go when taking the route south of Africa rather than the canal.^[103]

Before the canal's opening in 1869, goods were sometimes offloaded from ships and carried overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.^[104]

Northern Sea Route[edit]

In recent years, the shrinkingArcticsea ice has made the Northern Sea Route feasible for commercial cargo ships between Europe and East Asia during a six-to-eight-week window in the summer months, shortening the voyage by thousands of miles compared to that through the Suez Canal. According to polar climate researchers, as the extent of the Arctic summer ice pack recedes the route will become passable without the help of icebreakers for a greater period each summer.^[105][106]

The Bremen-based Beluga Group claimed in 2009 to be the first Western company to attempt using the Northern Sea Route without assistance from icebreakers, cutting 4000 nautical miles off the journey between Ulsan, Korea and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.^[107]

Negev desert railroad[edit]

Israel has declared that it will construct a railroad through the Negev desert to compete with the canal, with construction partly financed by China.^[108]

Environmental impact[edit]

The opening of the canal created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Although the Red Sea is about 1.2 m (4 ft) higher than the eastern Mediterranean,^[109] the current between the Mediterranean and the middle of the canal at the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. The current south of the Bitter Lakes is tidal, varying with the tide at Suez.^[4] The Bitter Lakes, which were hypersaline natural lakes, blocked the migration of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalised with that of the Red Sea the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonise the eastern Mediterranean.^{[citation needed]}

The Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the less salty and nutrient-rich eastern Mediterranean. Accordingly, most Red Sea species invade the Mediterranean biota, and only few do the opposite. This migratory phenomenon is called Lessepsian migration (after Ferdinand de Lesseps) or 'Erythrean invasion'. Also impacting the eastern Mediterranean, starting in 1968, was the operation of Aswan High Dam across the Nile. While providing for increased human development, the project reduced the inflow of freshwater and ended all natural nutrient-rich silt entering the eastern Mediterranean at the Nile Delta. This provided less natural dilution of Mediterranean salinity and ended the higher levels of natural turbidity, additionally making conditions more like those in the Red Sea.^{[citation needed]}

Invasive species originating from the Red Sea and introduced into the Mediterranean by the canal have become a major component of the Mediterranean ecosystem and have serious impacts on the ecology, endangering many local and endemic species. About 300 species from the Red Sea have been identified in the Mediterranean, and there are probably others yet unidentified. The Egyptian government's intent to enlarge the canal has raised concerns from marine biologists, fearing that this will worsen the invasion of Red Sea species.^[110]

Construction of the canal was preceded by cutting a small fresh-water canal called Sweet Water Canal from the Nile delta along Wadi Tumilat to the future canal, with a southern branch to Suez and a northern branch to Port Said. Completed in 1863, these brought fresh water to a previously arid area, initially for canal construction, and subsequently facilitating growth of agriculture and settlements along the canal.^[111]

Suez Canal Economic Zone[edit]

The Suez Canal Economic Zone, sometimes shortened to the Suez Canal Zone, describes the set of locations neighbouring the canal where customs rates have been reduced to zero in order to attract investment. The zone comprises over 600 km² within the governorates of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. Projects in the zone are collectively described as the Suez Canal Area Development Project (SCADP).^[112][113]

The plan focuses on development of East Port Said and the port of Ain Sokhna, and hopes to extend to four more ports at West Port Said, El-Adabiya, Arish and El Tor.^[114]

The zone incorporates the three 'Qualifying Industrial Zones' at Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, a 1996 American initiative to encourage economic ties between Israel and its neighbours.^[115]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^'The Suez Canal - A vital shortcut for global commerce'(PDF). World Shipping Council.
2. ^'Yearly Number & Net Tone by Ship Type, Direction & Ship Status'. Suez Canal. Archived from the original on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
3. ^Suez Canal Authority
4. ^ ^abThe Red Sea Pilot. Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson. 1995. p. 266.
5. ^Editors, History com. 'Suez Crisis'. HISTORY. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
6. ^'SCA Overview'. Suez Canal Authority. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
7. ^Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal of 2 March 1888 still in force and specifically maintained in Nasser's Nationalization Act.
8. ^ ^ab'New Suez Canal project proposed by Egypt to boost trade'. Cairo News.Net. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
9. ^Tadros, Sherine (6 August 2015). 'Egypt Opens New £6bn Suez Canal'. Sky News. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
10. ^'Egypt opens East Port Said side channel for navigation - Xinhua'. News.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
11. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqrst}Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Suez Canal' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 22–25.
12. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacad}Rappoport, S. (Doctor of Philosophy, Basel). History of Egypt (undated, early 20th century), Volume 12, Part B, Chapter V: 'The Waterways of Egypt', pages 248–257. London: The Grolier Society.
13. ^ ^abcHassan, F. A. & Tassie, G. J. Site location and history (2003). Kafr Hassan Dawood On-Line, Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organization. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
14. ^ ^abPlease refer to Sesostris#Modern research.
15. ^J. H. Breasted attributes the ancient canal's early construction to Senusret III, up through the first cataract. Please refer to J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part One, Chicago 1906, §§642–648
16. ^Fisher, William B.; Smith, Charles Gordon. 'Suez Canal'. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
17. ^ ^abThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, s.v. 'Suez Canal'Archived 14 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
18. ^ ^abcdeNaville, Édouard. 'Map of the Wadi Tumilat' (plate image), in The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus (1885). London: Trubner and Company.
19. ^'Meteorology (1.15)'. Ebooks.adelaide.edu.au. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
20. ^The Elder Pliny and John Healey Natural History (6.33.165) Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (5 February 2004) ISBN978-0-14-044413-1 p. 70 [1]
21. ^ ^abCarte hydrographique de l'Basse Egypte et d'une partie de l'Isthme de Suez (1855, 1882). Volume 87, page 803. Paris. See [2].
22. ^ ^abShea, William H. 'A Date for the Recently Discovered Eastern Canal of Egypt', in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 226 (April 1977), pp. 31–38.
23. ^Sanford (1938), p. 72; Garrison (1999), p. 36.
24. ^Hess, Richard S. Rev. of Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition, by James K. Hoffmeier. The Denver Journal 1 (1 January 1998). Retrieved 14 May 2008.
25. ^Hassan, Fekri A. Kafr Hassan Dawood On-line, 17 August 2003. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
26. ^(in Spanish) Martínez Babon, Javier. 'Consideraciones sobre la Marinay la Guerra durante el Egipto Faraónico'Archived 1 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
27. ^Descriptions de l'Égypte, Volume 11 (État Moderne), containing Mémoire sur la communication de la mer des Indes à la Méditerranée par la mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Sueys, par M. J.M. Le Père, ingénieur en chef, inspecteur divisionnaire au corps impérial des ponts et chaussées, membre de l'Institut d'Égypte, pp. 21–186
28. ^Their reports were published in Description de l'Égypte
29. ^Montet, Pierre. Everyday Life in the Days of Ramesses The Great (1981), page 184. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
30. ^Silver, Morris. Ancient Economies II (6 April 1998), '5c. Evidence for Earlier Canals.' ANCIENT ECONOMIES II. Retrieved 8 August 2008. Economics Department, City College of New York.
31. ^Herodotus ii.158.
32. ^'The figure ‘120,000’ is doubtless exaggerated. Mehemet Ali lost only 10,000 in making the Mahmûdieh Canal (from the Nile to Alexandria).' remarked W. W. How and J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus.
33. ^According to Herodotus, work on the project was 'stayed by a prophetic utterance that he [Necho] was toiling beforehand for the barbarian. The Egyptians call all men of other languages barbarians.' (Herodotus, eo. loc..)
34. ^'Cambyses II - king of Persia'. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
35. ^ ^abApparently, Ptolemy considered the Great Bitter Lake as a northern extension of the Red Sea, whereas Darius had not, because Arsinoe is located north of Shaluf. (See Naville, 'Map of the Wadi Tumilat', referenced above.)
36. ^Please refer to Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions.
37. ^Jona Lendering. 'Darius' Suez Inscriptions'. Livius.org. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
38. ^'Pithom Stele - translation of inscription'. www.attalus.org.
39. ^R. E. Gmirkin, 'Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch', p. 236
40. ^Petermann, A.Karte Der Bai Von Súes (1856). Nach der Engl. Aufnahme v. Comm. Mansell.
41. ^Tuchman, BarbaraBible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine MacMillan, London (1987) ISBN0-333-33414-0
42. ^Starthern, P (2013) 'The Venetians' p. 175
43. ^Ortega, Stephen (2012). 'The Ottoman Age of Exploration'. The Historian. 74 (1): 89.
44. ^Rossi, N.; Rosand, David (2013). 'Italian Renaissance Depictions of the Ottoman Sultan: Nuances in the Function of Early Modern Italian Portraiture'. ProQuest.
45. ^ ^abHall, Linda. The Search for the Ancient Suez Canal. Kansas City, Missouri. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009.
46. ^Please refer to Description de l'Égypte.
47. ^Descriptions de l'Égypte, Volume 11 (État Moderne), containing Mémoire sur la communication de la mer des Indes à la Méditerranée par la mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Sueys,par M. J.M. Le Père, ingénieur en chef, inspecteur divisionnaire au corps impérial des ponts et chaussées, membre de l'Institut d'Égypte, pp. 21–186
48. ^Wilson, The Suez Canal
49. ^'[untitled]'. The Hobart Town Gazette. 26 February 1820. p. 2, col. 1. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
50. ^Percement de l'isthme de Suez. Rapport et Projet de la Commission Internationale. Documents Publiés par M. Ferdinand de Lesseps. Troisième série. Paris aux bureaux de l'Isthme de Suez, Journal de l'Union des deux Mers, et chez Henri Plon, Éditeur, 1856. On Google Books (french)
51. ^Arnold. T. Wilson, The Suez Canal
52. ^'Le canal de Suez – ARTE'. Arte.tv. 13 August 2006. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
53. ^Oster (2006)
54. ^There is differing information on the exact amounts
55. ^(reported by German historian Uwe A. Oster)Archived 19 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
56. ^'The People: Captain Nares'. HMS Challenger. University of California, San Diego. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
57. ^Glasgow Herald, 17 November 1903
58. ^History of the Anchor Line 1852–1911. 1911. Glasgow, UK: John Horn, for Anchor Line.
59. ^'The Suez Canal'. Russojapanesewar.com. Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
60. ^Haddad, Emily A. (Spring 2005). 'Digging to India: Modernity, Imperialism, and the Suez Canal'. Victorian Studies. Indiana University Press. 47 (3): 363. JSTOR3830220.
61. ^'Ångkorvetter Byggda I Karlskrona'. vhfk.se. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
62. ^Kassir, Samir (2011) [2010]. Beirut. Translated by M. B. DeBevoise (First ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. p. 127. ISBN9780520271265. OCLC1083962708. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
63. ^Fawaz, Leila Tarazi (1983). Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut. Harvard Middle Eastern Studies no. 18. p. 92. ISBN9780674569256. OCLC993333677.
64. ^Protocol of the Commission (in Ffrench)
65. ^(₤1 in 1875 = ₤109–114; 2019 Historical Uk Inflation Rates and Calculator; UK Inflation (CPI) Calculator - What's the Cost)
66. ^Hicks, Geoffrey (2012). 'Disraeli, Derby and the Suez Canal, 1875: Some Myths Reassessed'. History. 97 (2 (326)): 182–203. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2012.00548.x. JSTOR24429312.
67. ^Tignor, Robert L. (1963). 'Lord Cromer: Practitioner and Philosopher of Imperialism'. Journal of British Studies. 2 (2): 142–159. doi:10.1086/385467. JSTOR175255.
68. ^First World War – Willmott, H.P. Dorling Kindersley, 2003, Page 87
69. ^'The Suez Canal formally opened to ships'. stratscope.com. StratScope. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
70. ^'1956: Egypt seizes Suez Canal'. 26 July 1956 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
71. ^The Other Side of Suez (documentary) – 2003
72. ^'OPERATION RHEOSTAT ONE – ROYAL NAVY MINESWEEPERS ARRIVE AT PORT SAID TO HELP CLEAR THE SUEZ CANAL [Allocated Title]'. www.iwm.org.uk.
73. ^'OPERATION RHEOSTAT ONE – FLEET CLEARANCE DIVING TEAM AT WORK ON THE WRECK OF THE MECCA [Allocated Title]'. www.iwm.org.uk.
74. ^'OPERATION RHEOSTAT TWO – THE SUEZ CANAL IS REOPENED [Allocated Title]'. www.iwm.org.uk.
75. ^http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1970s/1974/sep74.pdf
76. ^'The Stars and Stripes'. 7 June 1975. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015.
77. ^(Multinational Force and Observers)
78. ^Lakshmi, Aiswarya (17 July 2015). 'Egypt Completes New Waterway in Suez Canal'. MarineLink. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
79. ^'Egypt completes dredging for new waterway in Suez Canal'. Al-Ahram. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
80. ^Knecht, Eric (6 August 2015). 'Egypt's Sisi launches nationalist New Suez Canal celebration'. Reuters. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
81. ^'New Suez Canal'. Government of Egypt (Suez Canal Authority). Retrieved 12 August 2015.
82. ^'Canal Characteristics'. Suez Canal Authority. 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
83. ^'Characteristics of the canal'. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009.
84. ^'Navigation Circular 'The New Suez Canal' No 5/2015'. Suez Canal Authority. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
85. ^''Attached Charts' to Navigation Circular 'The New Suez Canal' No 5/2015'(PDF). Suez Canal Authority. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
86. ^ ^abSuez Canal Authority http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg
87. ^'Canal Characteristics'. Suez Canal Authority. 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
88. ^Finkl, Charles W.; Pelinovsky, Efim; Cathcart, Richard B. (2012). 'A Review of Potential Tsunami Impacts to the Suez Canal'. Journal of Coastal Research. 283: 745–759. doi:10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-12A-00002.1. ISSN0749-0208.
89. ^SC News
90. ^'Traffic system'. Egyptian Maritime Data Bank (EMDB). Retrieved 8 February 2013.
91. ^Saleh, Stephen Kalin and Yasmine. 'Egypt awards Suez hub project to consortium that includes army: sources'.
92. ^http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/sc.aspx?show=69
93. ^Kingsley, Patrick (5 August 2014). 'Egypt to build new Suez canal'. The Guardian. London.
94. ^'Egypt launches Suez Canal expansion'. BBC News. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
95. ^'Traffic system'.
96. ^'Navigation Circular 5/2015'.
97. ^'Navigation, Convoy System'. Suez Canal Authority. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
98. ^'Kajima History'. Kajima. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
99. ^'Salt-Corroded Tunnel Undergoes Major Renovation'. Kajima.co.jp. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
100. ^'Six tunnels under Suez Canal'. Tunnelbuilder. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
101. ^Liam Stack, Arab countries meet to tackle Somali pirate threat – The Christian Science Monitor (21 November 2008).
102. ^Louis Wasser, Somali piracy costs Suez Canal business, San Francisco Chronicle (29 April 2009).
103. ^Bowden, Anna et al. The Economic Cost of Maritime PiracyArchived 29 June 2012 at Archive-It page 13. One Earth Future, December 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
104. ^Overland Mail by Thomas Fletcher Waghorn, Railway Alexandria – Cairo – Suez built by Robert Stephenson
105. ^'The Final Frontier: The Northern Sea Route'.
106. ^'Bye pirates, hello Northeast Passage'. AsianCorrespondent.com. 3 January 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
107. ^'German vessels ready for the Northern Sea Route'. BarentsObserver.com. 5 August 2009. Archived from the original on 6 January 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
108. ^'(In Estonian) Israel builds a railroad between the Mediterranean and the Red sea'. E24.ee. 5 February 2012.
109. ^Madl, Pierre (1999). Essay about the phenomenon of Lessepsian Migration, Colloquial Meeting of Marine Biology I, Salzburg, April 1999 (revised in Nov. 2001).
110. ^Galil and Zenetos (2002)
111. ^Britannica (2007)
112. ^'Suez Canal Economic Zone'. GAFI. Ministry of Investment, Egypt. 6 January 2016.
113. ^'Egypt aims to attract $30 bln in investment in Suez Canal Zone within 5 years: Investment minister'. Ahram Online. 25 July 2017.
114. ^Abdel-Razek, Sherine (4 August 2015). 'Canal corridor developments'. Al Ahram Weekly.
115. ^'Qualifying Industrial Zones'. American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. March 2018.

References[edit]

• Britannica (2007) 'Suez Canal', in: The new Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., 28, Chicago, Ill. ; London : Encyclopædia Britannica, ISBN1-59339-292-3
• Farnie, D.A. East and West of Suez: Suez Canal in History, 1854-1956, a stanmdard scholarly history; 870pp
• Galil, B.S. and Zenetos, A. (2002). 'A sea change: exotics in the eastern Mediterranean Sea', in: Leppäkoski, E., Gollasch, S. and Olenin, S. (eds), Invasive aquatic species of Europe : distribution, impacts, and management, Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic, ISBN1-4020-0837-6, p. 325–336
• Garrison, Ervan G. (1999) A history of engineering and technology : artful methods, 2nd ed., Boca Raton, Fla. ; London : CRC Press, ISBN0-8493-9810-X
• Hallberg, Charles W. The Suez Canal: Its History and Diplomatic Importance (1931), a standard scholarly history; 440pp; online
• Karabell, Zachary (2003) Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal, Knopf, ISBN978-0-375-40883-0
• Oster, Uwe (2006) Le fabuleux destin des inventions : le canal de Suez, TV documentary produced by ZDF and directed by Axel Engstfeld (Germany)
• Rathbone, William (1882). Great Britain and the Suez Canal. London: Chapman and Hall, Limited.
• Sanford, Eva Matthews (1938) The Mediterranean world in ancient times, Ronald series in history, New York : The Ronald Press Company, 618 p.
• Pudney, John. Suez; De Lesseps' Canal. New York: Praeger, 1969. Print.
• Wilson, Sir Arnold T. The Suez Canal (1939) online

External links[edit]

• Suez Canal on OpenStreetMap
• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law Peace Palace Library
• 3min video of sailing the 163km on YouTube, including the new section
• Suez Canal map by Strommer, 19th century. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The National Library of Israel. Historic Cities Research Project.

Canals, or navigations, are human-made channels, or artificial waterways, for water conveyance, or to service water transportvehicles. It can be thought as an artificial version of a river.

In most cases, the engineered works will have a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels, often just called levels.

A canal is also known as a navigation when it parallels a river and shares part of its waters and drainage basin, and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley.

In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation.

Many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and other water ways crossing far below.

Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire's aqueducts were such water supply canals.

• 7History
• 12References

Types of artificial waterways[edit]

A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height.

A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins.

Most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use.

Structures used in artificial waterways[edit]

Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation:

• weirs and dams to raise river water levels to usable depths;
• looping descents to create a longer and gentler channel around a stretch of rapids or falls;
• locks to allow ships and barges to ascend/descend.

Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and often need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, and ways to keep water in the channel.

Types of canals[edit]

There are two broad types of canal:

• Waterways: canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds:

• Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans.
• Those connected in a city network: such as the Canal Grande and others of VeniceItaly; the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok.

• Aqueducts: water supply canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals and agricultureirrigation.

Importance[edit]

Historically canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development, growth and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal; by the 1930s the company which built and operated it over a century pulled the plug. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of the numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were practically a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization – for the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport. Such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising the standard of living for any industrialized society.

The surviving canals, including most ship canals, today primarily service mostly bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have largely been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by, then began being replaced by using much faster, less geographically constrained & limited, and generally cheaper to maintain railways.

By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was increasingly diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, and growth of coal shipments leveled off. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U.S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling increasingly as road networks were improved, and which also had the freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which couldn't operate in the winter.

Construction[edit]

Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path:

Human made streams

• A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, concrete or other building materials. The finished shape of the canal as seen in cross section is known as the canal prism.^[1] The water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise and lower vessels. Examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal.
• A canal can be constructed by dredging a channel in the bottom of an existing lake. When the channel is complete, the lake is drained and the channel becomes a new canal, serving both drainage of the surrounding polder and providing transport there. Examples include the Lage Vaart [nl]. One can also build two parallel dikes in an existing lake, forming the new canal in between, and then drain the remaining parts of the lake. The eastern and central parts of the North Sea Canal were constructed in this way. In both cases pumping stations are required to keep the land surrounding the canal dry, either pumping water from the canal into surrounding waters, or pumping it from the land into the canal.

Canalization and navigations

• A stream can be canalized to make its navigable path more predictable and easier to maneuver. Canalization modifies the stream to carry traffic more safely by controlling the flow of the stream by dredging, damming and modifying its path. This frequently includes the incorporation of locks and spillways, that make the river a navigation. Examples include the Lehigh Canal in Northeastern Pennsylvania's coal Region, Basse Saône, Canal de Mines de Fer de la Moselle, and Aisne River. Riparian zone restoration may be required.

Lateral canals

• When a stream is too difficult to modify with canalization, a second stream can be created next to or at least near the existing stream. This is called a lateral canal, and may meander in a large horseshoe bend or series of curves some distance from the source waters stream bed lengthening the effective length in order to lower the ratio of rise over run (slope or pitch). The existing stream usually acts as the water source and the landscape around its banks provide a path for the new body. Examples include the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Canal latéral à la Loire, Garonne Lateral Canal and Juliana Canal.

Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats, while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port (e.g., Manchester Ship Canal), or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g., Caledonian Canal, Panama Canal).

Features[edit]

Canal 33 El Salvador

At their simplest, canals consist of a trench filled with water. Depending on the stratum the canal passes through, it may be necessary to line the cut with some form of watertight material such as clay or concrete. When this is done with clay, it is known as puddling.

Canals need to be level, and while small irregularities in the lie of the land can be dealt with through cuttings and embankments, for larger deviations other approaches have been adopted. The most common is the pound lock, which consists of a chamber within which the water level can be raised or lowered connecting either two pieces of canal at a different level or the canal with a river or the sea. When there is a hill to be climbed, flights of many locks in short succession may be used.

Prior to the development of the pound lock in 984 AD in China by Chhaio Wei-Yo^[2] and later in Europe in the 15th century, either flash locks consisting of a single gate were used or ramps, sometimes equipped with rollers, were used to change the level. Flash locks were only practical where there was plenty of water available.

Locks use a lot of water, so builders have adopted other approaches for situations where little water is available. These include boat lifts, such as the Falkirk Wheel, which use a caisson of water in which boats float while being moved between two levels; and inclined planes where a caisson is hauled up a steep railway.

To cross a stream, road or valley (where the delay caused by a flight of locks at either side would be unacceptable) the valley can be spanned by a navigable aqueduct – a famous example in Wales is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (now a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site) across the valley of the River Dee.

Canal 337

Another option for dealing with hills is to tunnel through them. An example of this approach is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Tunnels are only practical for smaller canals.

Some canals attempted to keep changes in level down to a minimum. These canals known as contour canals would take longer, winding routes, along which the land was a uniform altitude. Other, generally later, canals took more direct routes requiring the use of various methods to deal with the change in level.

Canals have various features to tackle the problem of water supply. In cases, like the Suez Canal, the canal is simply open to the sea. Where the canal is not at sea level, a number of approaches have been adopted. Taking water from existing rivers or springs was an option in some cases, sometimes supplemented by other methods to deal with seasonal variations in flow. Where such sources were unavailable, reservoirs – either separate from the canal or built into its course – and back pumping were used to provide the required water. In other cases, water pumped from mines was used to feed the canal. In certain cases, extensive 'feeder canals' were built to bring water from sources located far from the canal.

Where large amounts of goods are loaded or unloaded such as at the end of a canal, a canal basin may be built. This would normally be a section of water wider than the general canal. In some cases, the canal basins contain wharfs and cranes to assist with movement of goods.

When a section of the canal needs to be sealed off so it can be drained for maintenance stop planks are frequently used. These consist of planks of wood placed across the canal to form a dam. They are generally placed in pre-existing grooves in the canal bank. On more modern canals, 'guard locks' or gates were sometimes placed to allow a section of the canal to be quickly closed off, either for maintenance, or to prevent a major loss of water due to a canal breach.

History[edit]

The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry an eighth-ton^[3] [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum load over a journey measured in days and weeks,^[3] though much more for shorter distances and periods with appropriate rest.^[3] Besides, carts need roads. Transport over water is much more efficient and cost-effective for large cargoes.

Ancient canals[edit]

The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now Iraq and Iran. The Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient India, (circa 2600 BC) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including the reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7] It is 1,794 kilometres (1,115 mi) 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 30 metres (98 ft) wide.

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.^[8][9][10]

'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.^[3]

Middle Ages[edit]

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,^[3] it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules,^[3] meaning overland bulk transport was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and raw materials, could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in the pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne.

In Britain, the Glastonbury Canal is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link the River Brue at Northover^[11] with Glastonbury Abbey, a distance of about 1.75 kilometres (1,900 yd).^[12] 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.^[13]
More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like the Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect Milan with the Ticino River. The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the lombard 'navigli'^[14] 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.^[15] 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.

Early modern period[edit]

Around 1500–1800 the first canal to use pound locks 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 157 metres (515 ft) 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.^[16][17]

The oldest canal in 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[edit]

• See also: History of the British canal system
• See also: History of turnpikes and canals in the United States

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.^[18] 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.^[18][19] 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.^[18][19]

In the mid-eighteenth century the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, who owned a number of coal mines in northern England, wanted a reliable way to transport his coal to the rapidly industrializing city of Manchester. He commissioned the engineer James Brindley to build a canal for that purpose. Brindley's design included an aqueduct carrying the canal over the River Irwell. This was an engineering wonder which immediately attracted tourists.^[18][19] The construction of this canal was funded entirely by the Duke and was called the Bridgewater Canal. It opened in 1761 and was the first major British canal.^[20]

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^[20] – more than ten times the amount of cargo per horse that was possible with a cart. Because of this huge increase in supply, the Bridgewater canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within just a year of its opening. The Bridgewater was also a huge financial success, with it earning what had been spent on its construction within just a few years.

This success proved the viability of canal transport, and soon industrialists in many other parts of the country wanted canals. After the Bridgewater canal, early canals were built by groups of private individuals with an interest in improving communications. In Staffordshire the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood saw an opportunity to bring bulky cargoes of clay to his factory doors and to transport his fragile finished goods to market in Manchester, Birmingham or further away, by water, minimizing breakages. Within just a few years of the Bridgewater's opening, an embryonic national canal network came into being, with the construction of canals such as the Oxford Canal and the Trent & Mersey Canal.^[21]

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 simply 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 4,000 miles (over 6,400 kilometres) in length.^[20]

Many rival canal companies were formed and competition was rampant. Perhaps the best example was Worcester Bar in Birmingham, a point where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line were only seven feet apart. For many years, a dispute about tolls meant that goods travelling through Birmingham had to be portaged from boats in one canal to boats in the other.^[22]

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. Three were completed when the War of 1812 broke out; these were the Santee Canal (opened 1800) in South Carolina, the Middlesex Canal (opened 1802) 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 363 miles (584 km) 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 565 ft. (169 m). The Erie Canal with its easy connections to most of the U.S. 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 U.S. states or overseas. Assured of a market for their farm products the settlement of the U.S. 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.

Power canals[edit]

• See also: Power canal

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 6 miles (9.7 km) 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 10,000 horsepower.^[23] 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[edit]

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 100 miles (161 km) to over 4,000, 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, 363 miles (584 km) 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.

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.^[24]

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.^[25]

Modern uses[edit]

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.^[26]

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 optictelecommunications 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[edit]

Canals are so deeply identified with Venice that many canal cities have been nicknamed 'the Venice of…'. The city is built on marshy islands, with wooden piles supporting the buildings, so that the land is man-made rather than the waterways. The islands have a long history of settlement; by the 12th century, Venice was a powerful city state.

Amsterdam was built in a similar way, with buildings on wooden piles. It became a city around 1300. Many Amsterdam canals were built as part of fortifications. They became grachten when the city was enlarged and houses were built alongside the water.

Other cities with extensive canal networks include: Alkmaar, Amersfoort, Bolsward, Brielle, Delft, Den Bosch, Dokkum, Dordrecht, Enkhuizen, Franeker, Gouda, Haarlem, Harlingen, Leeuwarden, Leiden, Sneek and Utrecht in the Netherlands; Brugge and Gent in Flanders, Belgium; Birmingham in England; Saint Petersburg in Russia; Aveiro in Portugal; Hamburg and Berlin in Germany; Fort Lauderdale and Cape Coral in Florida, United States and Lahore in Pakistan.

Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site near the centre of Liverpool, England, where a system of intertwining waterways and docks is now being developed for mainly residential and leisure use.

Canal Estates (commonly known as bayous) are a form of subdivision popular in cities like Miami, Florida, Texas City, Texas and the Gold Coast, Queensland; the Gold Coast has over 700 km of residential canals. Wetlands are difficult areas upon which to build housing estates, so dredging part of the wetland down to a navigable channel provides fill to build up another part of the wetland above the flood level for houses. Land is built up in a finger pattern that provides a suburban street layout of waterfront housing blocks.

Boats[edit]

Inland canals have often had boats specifically built for them. An example of this is the British narrowboat, which is up to 72 feet (21.95 m) long and 7 feet (2.13 m) wide and was primarily built for British Midland canals. In this case the limiting factor was the size of the locks. This is also the limiting factor on the Panama canal where Panamax ships were limited to a length of 289.56 m (950 ft) and a beam of 32.31 m (106 ft) until 26 June 2016 when the opening of larger locks allowed for the passage of larger New Panamax ships. For the lockless Suez Canal the limiting factor for Suezmax ships is generally draft, which is limited to 16 m (52.5 ft). At the other end of the scale, tub-boat canals such as the Bude Canal were limited to boats of under 10 tons for much of their length due to the capacity of their inclined planes or boat lifts. Most canals have a limit on height imposed either by bridges or by tunnels.

Lists of canals[edit]

• Europe
  • Great Bačka Canal (Serbia)
• North America

See also[edit]

• Barges of all types
• Beaver, a non-human animal also known for canal building
• Roman canals – (Torksey)

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Thompson, Kristi. 'Glossary'. www.usbr.gov. US Bureau of Reclamation. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
2. ^Hadfield 1986, p. 22.
3. ^ ^abcdef'Works of Man', Ronald W. Clark, ISBN0-670-80483-5 (1985) 352 pages, Viking Penguin, Inc, New York,
   quotation p. 87: 'There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a packhorse would [sic, meaning 'could' or 'can only'] 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.'
4. ^Rodda 2004, p. 161.
5. ^Hadfield 1986, p. 16.
6. ^Needham 1971, p. 269.
7. ^Donald Langmead (2001). Encyclopedia of Architectural and Engineering Feats. ABC-CLIO. p. 37. ISBN978-1-57607-112-0. Retrieved 15 February 2013. the world's largest artificial waterway and oldest canal still in existence
8. ^Moore, Frank Gardner (1950): 'Three Canal Projects, Roman and Byzantine', American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 97–111 (99–101)
9. ^Froriep, Siegfried (1986): 'Ein Wasserweg in Bithynien. Bemühungen der Römer, Byzantiner und Osmanen', Antike Welt, 2nd Special Edition, pp. 39–50 (46)
10. ^Schörner, Hadwiga (2000): 'Künstliche Schiffahrtskanäle in der Antike. Der sogenannte antike Suez-Kanal', Skyllis, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 28–43 (33–35)
11. ^specifically from (51°08′18″N2°44′09″W / 51.1384°N 2.7358°W), Start point at River Brue
12. ^Details text and data with cites from Glastonbury Canal (medieval).
13. ^Gathercole, Clare (2003). An archaeological assessment of Glastonbury(PDF). English Heritage Extensive Urban Survey. Taunton: Somerset County Council. pp. 19–20. Archived from the original(PDF) on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
14. ^Calvert 1963, p. .
15. ^The International Canal Monuments List(PDF), retrieved 8 October 2008
16. ^David Cornforth (February 2012). 'Exeter Canal and Quayside – a short history'. www.exetermemories.co.uk. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
17. ^Exeter history by www.exeter.gov.uk, .pdf file Exeter Ship Canal, The First Four Hundred YearsArchived 19 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, accessdate=13 September 2013
18. ^ ^abcdBurton, (1995). Chapter 3: Building the Canals
19. ^ ^abcRolt, Inland Waterways
20. ^ ^abcReader's Digest Library of Modern Knowledge. London: Readers Digest. 1978. p. 990.
21. ^Hadfield, Charles (1981). The Canal Age (Second ed.). David & Charles. ISBN978-0-7153-8079-6.
22. ^Hadfield, Charles (1966). The Canals of the West Midlands. David & Charles. ISBN978-0-7153-4660-0.
23. ^Lowell National Historical Park – Lowell History Prologue, retrieved 8 October 2008
24. ^Edwards 2002, p. .
25. ^Hadfield 1986, p. 191.
26. ^The Associated Press (26 June 2016). 'Panama Canal Opens $5B Locks, Bullish Despite Shipping Woes'. The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2016.

Bibliography[edit]

• Burton, Anthony (1995) [1989], The Great Days of the Canals, Twickenham: Tiger Books, ISBN978-1-85501-695-8
• Calvert, Roger (1963), Inland Waterways of Europe, George Allen and Unwin
• Edwards-May, David (2008), European Waterways - map and concise directory, 3rd edition, Euromapping
• Hadfield, Charles (1986), World Canals: Inland Navigation Past and Present, David and Charles, ISBN978-0-7153-8555-5
• Needham, J. (1971), Science and Civilisation in China, C.U.P. Cambridge
• Rodda, J.C. (2004), The Basis of Civilization - Water Science?, International Association of Hydrological Sciences

External links[edit]

• Triumphs of Canal Building^{[permanent dead link]}
• Canal flow measurement using a sensor.
• 'Canal' . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.