Göta Canal

From Free net encyclopedia

The Göta Canal is a Swedish canal constructed in the early 19th century. The canal stretches all the way from Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast, combined with the river Göta älv and the Trollhätte canal, through the great lakes Vänern and Vättern, in parallel with Motala ström, and to Söderköping on the Baltic Sea.

Image:Gota Locks 1.jpg

The architect was Baltzar von Platen, working to plans earlier developed at the request of the Swedish king by the British civil engineer Thomas Telford; he got permission to begin to work on April 11, 1810 and the canal was officially opened on September 26, 1832. Telford himself travelled to Sweden in 1810 to oversee some of the initial excavations on the project. Built only decades before the advent of railroads (see Rail Transport), the canal was soon outdated, and never upgraded. The canal is a tourist attraction, sometimes called the blue ribbon of Sweden.

Image:La2-demis-motalastrom.png To support the building of the canal with mechanical works, a small engineering workshop was established in Motala called Motala Verkstad. This industry has sometimes been referred to as cradle of the Swedish engineering industry.

1 In fiction
2 Stops
3 Photographs of the Göta Canal
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 External links

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In fiction

Several movies depict the canal, most notably the 1981 comedy Göta Kanal, in which two competing yacht constructors race the canal in order to win a huge construction stock order.

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