Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries With a description of the Panama, Suez, Manchester, Nicaraguan, and other canals.

IV.—STATEMENT OF THE CANALS, &c., IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY RAILWAY COMPANIES ON 31ST DECEMBER, 1882, ARRANGED UNDER THE DATES OF THE SPECIAL ACTS AUTHORISIN...

The history of transportation is largely, and of necessity, the history of material progress. It is hardly possible to conceive of the prosperity of a people to whom the most pr...

sluices. In Russia, canals had been constructed in the time of Peter the Great, for the purpose of affording a means of communication between the different inland seas that are...

“Rivers, arise; whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulphy Don, Or Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads His thirty arms along the indented meads; Or...

“Of famous cities we the founders know, But rivers, old as seas to which they go, Are nature’s bounty; ’tis of more renown, To make a river than to build a town.” —_Waller._

Scotland has a number of rivers of the first importance, especially the Clyde, the Tay, the Dee, and the Tweed. It has a large number of smaller streams, most of them, however,...

If there is one country more than another that ought to be possessed of ample and complete water communication, that country is surely Ireland. Surrounded on all sides by the se...

One of the most notable features of the engineering and commercial development of to-day is the movement, elsewhere alluded to, for making ship canals with the view of convertin...

Within recent years, the advocates of water transport in Great Britain and other countries, have been accustomed to point to France as a notable example of the advantages of imp...

“How many spacious countries does the Rhine, In winding banks and mazes serpentine, Traverse, before he splits on Belgia’s plain, And, lost in sand, creeps to the German main.”...

The little kingdom of Belgium enjoys the advantage of having both a complete railway system and an excellent system of canal transport. There is, indeed, no country in Europe wh...

Holland, the land of dykes and ditches, is completely cut up into small islands by its extensive system of canals, which cross and interlace each other like the threads of some...

“Though Tiber’s streams immortal Rome behold, Though foaming Hermus swells with tides of gold, From Heaven itself, though sevenfold Nilus flows, And harvests on a hundred realms...

Although Sweden is possessed of an admirable system of lakes, which facilitates transport over a wide area, and although the commerce of the country is limited, and the populati...

The Russian Empire is, in many respects, the most remarkable in the world. With an area of more than eight and a half million of square miles, and a population of 110 millions,...

The great waterway of Austria is the Danube, which rises in the Black Forest, at an elevation of about 3600 feet above the sea, and drains an area of 316,000 square miles, its t...

“The Erie Canal, conceived by the genius, and achieved by the energy of De Witt Clinton, was, during the second quarter of this century, the most potent influence of American pr...

It appears to be among the “things not generally known” that Canada has, relatively to the trade and population of the Dominion, one of the most extensive and perfect systems of...

_The Amazon._—Of the many navigable highways in South and Central America, the Amazon river is by far the most important. Nay, more, this river, which has a drainage area of 2,2...

“But if, with bays and dams, they strive to force His channel to a new or narrow course, No longer then within his banks he dwells, First to a torrent, then a deluge swells.” —_...

It has long been a contested point between different sections of the officials charged with the government of India whether canals or railways were likely to provide the cheapes...

The greatest artificial waterway constructed up to the present time has been the Suez Canal. Longer canals have been made both in Europe and in the United States, but no canal h...

If the question were asked, “What is the greatest constructive work that has yet been undertaken by man?” there would, without question, be a great many different replies. There...

One of the most important and costly of isthmian canal projects that now looms on the horizon is that which is designed to afford a communication between the Atlantic and the Pa...

Whether we regard the magnitude of the enterprise, the importance of the district it is intended to serve, the difficulties and opposition that have had to be surmounted, or the...

One of the many schemes that have been put forward from time to time, with a view to affording a more direct communication between the Ægean and the Black Sea, appears likely to...

The river Thames is in many respects one of the most remarkable in the world. No other river has so large a commerce, no other river can boast such a display of shipping, no oth...

There is no movement of modern times that has been more pregnant in its results, or more interesting in its course of development, than that which has given to the world its exi...

There is no matter connected with the trade and commerce of a country that is of greater importance to its welfare than cheap transport. The business of transportation, both by...

The cost of transport, whether by land or by water, is necessarily largely affected by the method of propulsion or traction employed. On the ocean, on lakes, and, for the most p...

The main difference between rivers and canals, is that the former are usually capable of being navigated without any artificial provision for overcoming differences of level, wh...

In the laying out of a canal there generally comes a juncture at which the engineer has to choose between a tunnel, a flight of locks, a lift, or series of lifts, and, finally,...

All other things being equal, the system of transport that is able to afford the greatest average speed will be certain to command the lion’s share of business. There are, howev...

There is a very prevalent impression that railways and canals have each their proper and natural function in the transport of merchandise—the railways in the carrying of goods o...

“When, with sounds of smother’d thunder, On some night of rain, Lake and river break asunder Winter’s weakened chain; Down the wild March flood shall bear them, To the saw mill’...

One of the most important matters that the canal engineer and manager has to deal with, is the adoption of the form of boat best suited for the gauge of his canal and the charac...

“The march of the human mind is slow. It was not, until after two hundred years, discovered that, by an eternal law, providence had decreed vexation to violence and poverty to r...