Geografia d'Europa: textos de suport

The canal connecting the Bay of Cronstadt with St. Petersburg is described as a work of great strategic and commercial importance to Russia. The canal and sailing course in the Bay of Cronstadt are about 16 miles long, the canal proper being about 6 miles and the bay channel about 10 miles, and they together extend from Cronstadt, on the Gulf of Finland, to St. Petersburg. The canal was opened in 1890 with a navigable depth of 20 1/2 feet, the original depth having been about 9 feet; the width ranges from 220 to 350 feet. The total cost is estimated at about $10,000,000.
 
 

The next of the great ship canals connecting bodies of salt water in the order of date of construction is the Corinth Canal, which connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Gulf of Ægina. The canal reduces the distance from Adriatic ports about 175 miles and from Mediterranean ports about 100 miles. Its length is about 4 miles, a part of which was cut through granitic soft rock and the remainder through soil. There are no locks, as is also the case in both the Suez and Cronstadt canals, already described. The width of the canal is 72 feet at bottom and the depth 26 1/4 feet. The work was begun in 1884 and completed in 1893 at a cost of about $5,000,000. The average tolls are 18 cents per ton and 20 cents per passenger.
 
 

The Manchester ship canal, which connects Manchester, England, with the Mersey River, Liverpool, and the Atlantic Ocean, was opened for traffic January 1, 1894. The length of the canal is 35 1/2 miles, the total rise from the water level to Manchester being 60 feet, which is divided between four sets of locks, giving an average to each of 15 feet. The minimum depth is 26 feet, and the time required for navigating the canal from five to eight hours. The total amount of excavation in the canal and docks was about 45,000,000 cubic yards, of which about one-fourth was sandstone rock. The lock gates are operated by hydraulic power; railways and bridges crossing the route of the canal have been raised to give a height of 75 feet to vessels traversing the canal, and an ordinary canal whose route it crosses is carried across by a springing aqueduct composed of an iron caisson resting upon a pivot pier. The total cost of the canal is given at $75,000,000. The revenue in 1902, according to the Statesman's Yearbook, was £358,491, and the working expenses, £217,537. For the year ending June 30, 1903, the canal yielded £55,105 toward paying the £225,000 of interest which the city of Manchester has to pay on the capital invested in the enterprise.
 
 

Two canals connect the Baltic and North seas through Germany, the first, known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, having been completed in 1895 and constructed largely for military and naval purposes, but proving also of great value to general mercantile traffic. Work upon the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was begun in 1887, and completed, as above indicated, in 1895. The length of the canal is 61 miles, the terminus in the Baltic Sea being at the harbor of Kiel. The depth is 29 1/2 feet, the width at the bottom 72 feet, and the minimum width at the surface 190 feet. The route lies chiefly through marshes and shallow lakes and along river valleys. The total excavation amounted to about 100,000,000 cubic yards, and the cost to about $40,000,000. The number of vessels passing through the canal in 1903-4 was 32,038, with a tonnage of 4,990,287, and the dues collected amounted to 2,414,499 marks.
 
 

A smaller canal, with a length of 41 miles and a depth of about 10 feet was opened in 1900, known as the Elbe and Trave Canal, and is described by the International Yearbook, 1900, as follows:

"The Elbe and Trave Canal, in Germany, was opened by the Emperor of Germany on June 16, 1900. It has been under construction for five years, and has cost about $5,831,000, of which Prussia contributed $1,785,000 and the old Hanse town of Lubeck $4,046,000. The length of the new canal is about 41 miles, and is the second to join the North Sea and the Baltic, following the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal (or Kiel Canal), built about five years ago at a cost of $37,128,000. The breadth of the new canal is 72 feet; breadth of the locks, 46 feet; length of locks, 261 feet; depth of locks, 8 feet 2 inches. It is crossed by 29 bridges, erected at a cost of $1,000,000. There are seven locks, five being between Lubeck and the Mollner See (the summit point of the canal) and two between Mollner See and Fauenberg-on-the-Elbe.

At this point it may be noted that the Germans began experiments during 1900 with electric towing on the Finow canal between Berlin and Stettin. A track of 1-meter gauge was laid along the bank of the canal, having one 9-pound and one 18-pound rail laid partly on cross-ties and partly on concrete blocks. The larger rail serves for the return current, and has bolted to it a rack which gears with a spur wheel on the locomotive. The locomotive is 6 feet 10 inches by 4 feet 10 inches, mounted on four wheels, with a wheel base of 3 feet 6 inches, and weighing 2 tons. It is fitted with a 12-horsepower motor, current for which is furnished by a 9-kilowatt dynamo, driven by a 15-horsepower engine. The current is 500 volts, and is transmitted by a wire carried on wooden poles 23 feet high and about 120 feet apart. The boats are 132 feet long and 15 feet 6 inches beam, and carry from 150 to 175 tons on a draft of 4 feet 9 inches. During 1900 the Stettin-Swinemund Canal, with a length of 35 miles, has been dredged throughout, and is now open to steamers drawing 22 feet of water. Swinemund is on the Baltic Sea. Among the various projects for European canals may be mentioned one connecting the Danube a little below Vienna, Austria, with the Adriatic Sea at Trieste, a distance of about 319 miles.

Herr Wagenfahrer, of Vienna, is said to have the concession for this canal, the construction of which will cost some $120,000,000. Late in 1900 a canal from Liege to Antwerp, in Belgium, was being seriously discussed, in order to connect the prosperous city of Liege with the sea, and make it, like the city of Manchester, England, a seaport. The original promoter of the scheme was Mr. Joseph Redonti, who is now dead. Mr. Redonti's plans have recently been put in practical shape by Louis Hubin and Gaston Delville, who propose a canal 84 miles long, 200 feet wide, and 23 feet deep from Antwerp to Liege, with locks at Liege, Hasselt, Herenthals, and Antwerp. The difference in level to be overcome by locks would be 175 feet, and it is thought that thirteen single locks and one double lock would be sufficient. The total estimated cost of the work is $25,200,000."
 
 

According to a recent report of the United States Consul-General Geunther, of Frankfort, Germany, the committee on canals of the Prussian Diet has reported, with a favorable recommendation, a bill providing for the following construction:

The construction of these works is to be commenced only if, before July 1, 1906, the provinces and municipalities or other political divisions have obligated themselves to pay their share of the cost, the interest thereon, and the deficit which may not be met by tolls. The shares of the cost of construction, and interest thereon, is fixed as follows: Rhine-Herne Canal, 24,300,000 marks ($5,783,400); interest 3 per cent. Bevergern-Hanover Canal, 37,350 marks ($8,889,300); interest 1 per cent, the first five years, 2 per cent the second five years, and 3 per cent from and after the eleventh year. Branch canals of the Lippe, 14,870,000 marks ($3,539,600); interest, 3 per cent. Deep waterway Berlin-Stettin, 6,300,000 marks ($1,499,400); interest same as with the Bevergern-Hanover Canal. Canalization of the river Oder 5,100,000 marks ($1,213,800); interest same as with the Bevergern-Hanover Canal.
 
 

Fuente:
Bill Carr - Great Canals of the World
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Statistics
http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/bib/whitford/1906/vol2/part5.htm