[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > so unlike here in NY USA were even the erie canal has a practical=20 > application to move bulk freight...why do narrow british canals=20 > exist? Irrigation? > the last of our narrow canals ran in 1931...in betheham PA USA for=20 > coal
If you're asking why they were built - because at the time they were constructed in the late 18th to mid 19th century, before mechanised road or rail transport had developed, waterways of that size could be profitable (although sometimes the actual profits did not live up to the promoters' expectations). If you're asking why they stll exist today - because despite their small size and general lack of modernisation, they survived as cargo-carriers for just long enough that most of them were still usable when it was first realised (initially only by a very few visionaries) that they could have a future as leisure boating routes. Martin L
