canals

[davewilliams]

how did they fill them with water,where did the water come from?

[mrpeter]

In the case of the Panama Canal they dammed the river Chargres and formed a man made lake , the Gatun Lake,
from which the lock chambers are filled.Ships are lifted about 26 meters in three stages at each end of the canal

[vehelpfulguy]

Canals are usually filled from reservoirs.

The reservoirs were often built by daming rivers.

Because these reservoirs were built so long ago many of them are now local beauty spots and people do not realise they are for feeding canals.

Near where I live, in Solihull, Birmingham we have Earlswood lakes. This is three lakes that many people walk around, and fish from, but I bet very few know they feed the local canal.

More here:

http://www.fisheries.co.uk/earlswood/

[vehelpfulguy]

When the people were building the canals they obviously had to consider that water was going to get lost.

Every time someone goes through a lock water is lost from the canal above.

So when desiging the canals they tried to have one long stretch at the highest point with NO locks. This was called the level.

Any reservoirs that were built were placed above this level, so they could feed this main head of water.

Because this level was as long as possible, and flat, it held a large amount of water.

Obviously if it was the highest point then it had to have locks at either end that went down.

As people went through these locks water was lost from the level, but because of the reservoirs that feed the level they could always top it up.

You can read more about the Birmingham canals here, and read how there are 3 "levels" in Birmngham, all fed by their own reservoirs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Canal_ Navigations

[vehelpfulguy]

Slight sidetrack, but the story of the building of the Panama canal is fascinating.

Originally the French tried to build it, but they wanted no locks so decided to dig the canal so it linked both ends at sea level.

This meant removing millions of tons of earth and was a disaster. Over 8 years about 22,000 people died during the attempts to built it.

Then the USA took over the building of it, and they decided to have locks so they did not need to remove as much soil.

It took them 10 years and another 5,000 people died.

So in all about 27,500 people died building the canal, although this figure may be an underestimate.

More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

[spudqueen]

The bottom of a canal is not mud it is puddle - a type of clay. It was put there to keep the water in.

[markja]

if you could see my water bill you'de realise i'm paying for them to be filled!! didn't even ask if they could borrow my hose either!!