The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allowed navigation from Edinburgh on the east coast to the port of Glasgow on the west coast. The canal is 35 miles (56 km) long and it runs from the River Carron at Grangemouth to the River Clyde at Bowling, and had an important basin at Port Dundas in Glasgow.

Successful in its day, it suffered as the seagoing vessels were built larger and could no longer pass through. The railway age further impaired the success of the canal, and in the 1930s decline had ended in dormancy. The final decision to close the canal in the early 1960s was made due to maintenance costs of bridges crossing the canal exceeding the revenues it brought in. However, subsidies to the rail network were also a cause for its decline and the closure ended the movement of the east-coast Forth River fishing fleets across the country to fish the Irish Sea. The lack of political and financial foresight also removed a historical recreational waterway and potential future revenue generator to the town of Grangemouth. Unlike the majority of major canals the route through Grangemouth was drained and backfilled before 1967 to create a new carriageway for port traffic.

The M8 motorway in the eastern approaches to Glasgow took over some of the alignment of the canal, but more recent ideas have regenerated the utility of the canal for leisure use.

Geography

The eastern end of the canal is connected to the River Forth by a stretch of the River Carron near Grangemouth. The canal roughly follows the course of the Roman Antonine Wall and was the biggest infrastructure project in Scotland since then. The highest section of the canal passes close to Kilsyth and it is fed there by an aqueduct which gathers water from (the purpose built) Birkenburn Reservoir in the Kilsyth Hills, stored in another purpose-built reservoir called Townhead near Banton, from where it feeds the canal via a feeder from the Shawend Burn near Craigmarloch. The canal continues past Twechar, through Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs to the Maryhill area north of Glasgow city centre. A branch to Port Dundas was built to secure the agreement and financial support of Glasgow merchants who feared losing business if the canal bypassed them completely. This branch flows past Murano Street Student Village, halls of residence for the University of Glasgow. The western end of the canal connects to the River Clyde at Bowling.

In 1840, a 1⁄2-mile (800 m) canal, the Forth and Cart Canal, was built to link the Forth and Clyde canal, at Whitecrook, to the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Cart.

Origins

Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1768
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for making and maintaining a Navigable Cut or Canal from the Firth or River of Forth, at or near the Mouth of the River of Carron, in the County of Stirling, to the Firth or River of Clyde, at or near a Place called Dalmuir Burn-foot, in the County of Dumbarton; and also a collateral Cut from the same to the City of Glasgow, and for making a Navigable Cut or Canal of Communication from the Port and Harbour of Borrowstounness, to join the Said Canal, at or near, the Place where it will fall into the Firth of Forth.
Citation	8 Geo. 3. c. 63
Dates
Royal assent	8 March 1768

Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1771
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act to explain, amend, and render more effectual an Act made in the Eighth Year of His present Majesty's Reign, intituled, "An Act for making and maintaining a Navigable Cut or Canal from the Firth or River of Forth, at or near the Mouth of the River of Carron in the County of Stirling, to the Firth or River of Clyde, at or near a Place called Dalmuir Burnfoot in the County of Dumbarton; and also a collateral Cut from the same to the City of Glasgow; and for making a Navigable Cut or Canal of Communication, from the Port and Harbour of Borrowstounness, to join the said Canal at or near the Place where it will fall into the Firth of Forth."
Citation	11 Geo. 3. c. 62
Dates
Royal assent	8 March 1771
Other legislation
Amends	Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1768

Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1784
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for extending, amending, and altering the Powers of an Act made in the Eighth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Cut, or Canal, from the Firth or River of Forth, at or near the Mouth of the River of Carron, in the County of Stirling, to the Firth or River of Clyde, at or near a Place called Dalmuir Burnfoot, in the County of Dumbarton; and also a collateral Cut from the same to the City of Glasgow; and for making a navigable Cut, or Canal of Communication, from the Port and Harbour of Borrowstounness, to join the said Canal, at or near the Place where it will fall into the Firth of Forth."
Citation	24 Geo. 3. Sess. 2. c. 59
Other legislation
Amends	Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1768

Forth and Clyde Navigation Act 1787
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Citation	27 Geo. 3. c. 20

Forth and Clyde Navigation (No. 2) Act 1787
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for varying and extending the Powers of the Company of Proprietors of the Forth and Clyde Navigation.
Citation	27 Geo. 3. c. 55
Dates
Royal assent	21 May 1787

Priestley, writing in 1831, said:

The first act of parliament relating to this canal, received the royal assent on the 8th of March, 1768, and it is entitled, 'An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from the Firth or River of Forth, at or near the mouth of the River Carron, in the county of Stirling, to the Firth or River of Clyde, at or near a place called Dalmuir Burnfoot, in the county of Dumbarton; and also a collateral Cut from the same to the city of Glasgow; and for making a navigable Cut or Canal of Communication from the Port or Harbour of Borrowstounness, to join the said Canal at or near the place where it will fall into the Firth of Forth.'

The subscribers were incorporated by the name of "The Company of Proprietors of the Forth and Clyde Navigation," with power to raise among themselves the sum of £150,000, in fifteen hundred shares of £100 each, and an additional sum of £50,000, if necessary.^[1]

At first there were difficulties with securing the capital for the work, but soon, thanks in the main to investment by Sir Lawrence Dundas, 1st Baronet, "the execution of this canal proceeded with such rapidity, under the direction of Mr. Smeaton, that in two years and three quarters from the date of the first act, one half of the work was finished; when, in consequence of some misunderstanding between him and the proprietors, he declined any further connection with the work, which was shortly afterwards let to contractors, who however failed, and the canal was again placed under the direction of its original projector, who brought it to within six miles of its proposed junction with the Clyde, when the work was stopped in 1775 for want of funds, and it continued at a stand for several years."^[1]

Numerous supplementary Acts of Parliament preceded this period and more followed, but the key to unlocking the problem was some creativity, in which "the Barons of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, are, out of the money arising from the sale of forfeited estates, directed to lend the Forth and Clyde Navigation Company the sum of £50,000, by which they were enabled to resume their labours, under the direction of Mr. Robert Whitworth, an engineer possessing a well earned reputation". The work was completed on 28 July 1790.^[1]

The Forth and Clyde Navigation Committee was set up in Glasgow in (or before) 1787 and had several notable members: John Riddel (Lord Provost of Glasgow); John Campbell of Clathick; Patrick Colquhoun (Convenor and Superintendent); Robert Whitworth (engineer); Archibald Spiers; John Cumine (as collector of fees at east end) and James Loudon (as collector of fees at west end).^[2]

Contemporary description

Priestley wrote in 1831,

Besides the fine rivers above-mentioned , is joined by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, near Falkirk; with the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway at its summit, near the last-mentioned village; and with the Monkland Canal and the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway, at Port Dundas, near the city of Glasgow.

This magnificent canal commences in the River Forth, in Grangemouth Harbour, and near to where the Carron empties itself into that river. Its course is parallel with the Carron, and in nearly a westwardly direction, passing to the north of the town of Falkirk, and thence to Red Bridge, where it quits the county of Stirling, and enters a detached portion of the shire of Dumbarton. Hence it passes to the south of Kilsyth, and runs along the south bank of the River Kelvin, and over the Luggie Water, by a fine stone aqueduct, at Kirkintilloch; it then approaches within little more than two miles of the north-west quarter of the city of Glasgow, to which there is a branch communicating with the Monkland Canal at Port Dundas, near that city. The remaining part of the line is in a westwardly direction, crossing the Kelvin River by a noble aqueduct, and thence to the Clyde, into which, after running parallel with it for some distance, it locks down at Bowling's Bay, near Dalmuir Burnfoot.

The canal is thirty-five miles in length, viz, from Grangemouth to the east end of the summit pool, is ten miles and three quarters , with a rise, from low water in the Forth, of 155 feet , by twenty locks. The summit level is sixteen miles in length, and in the remainder of its course, there is a fall to low water, in the Clyde, at Bowling's Bay, of 156 feet , by nineteen locks.

The branch to the Monkland Canal at Glasgow is two miles and three quarters ; and there is another cut into the Carron River, at Carron Shore, in order to communicate with the Carron Iron Works.

Though this canal was originally constructed for vessels drawing 7 feet , yet by recent improvements, sea-borne craft of 10 feet draught may now pass through it, from the Irish Sea to the German Ocean. The locks are 74 feet long and 20 wide ; and upon its course are thirty-three draw-bridges, ten large aqueducts and thirty-three smaller ones; that over the Kelvin being 429 feet long and 65 feet above the surface of the stream. It is supplied with water from reservoirs; one of which, at Kilmananmuir, is seventy acres , and 22 feet deep at the sluice; and that at Kilsyth is fifty acres in extent, with 24 feet water at its head.^[1]

Passenger traffic

v t e Forth and Clyde Canal
Legend
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Forth_&_Clyde_Canal Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia.  Navigácia: Veda > Analytika Antropológia Aplikované vedy Bibliometria Dejiny vedy Encyklopédie Filozofia vedy Forenzné vedy Humanitné vedy Knižničná veda Kryogenika Kryptológia Kulturológia Literárna veda Medzidisciplinárne oblasti Metódy kvantitatívnej analýzy Metavedy Metodika Metodológia vedy Náboženstvo a veda Náučná literatúra Podvody vo vede Popularizácia vedy Potravinárstvo Prírodné vedy Pseudoveda Scientometria Spoločenské vedy Teórie Teatrológia Technické vedy Technika Terminológia Umenie Výskum Veda Veda a technika podľa štátu Veda a technika podľa kontinentu Veda a technika podľa roka Veda v kozme Vedci Vedecká literatúra Vedecké databázy Vedecké experimenty Vedecké konferencie Vedecké metódy Vedecké ocenenia Vedecké organizácie Vedecké parky Vedeckí spisovatelia Vzdelávanie Záhady Príbuzné výrazy: Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia. www.astronomia.sk | www.biologia.sk | www.botanika.sk | www.dejiny.sk | www.economy.sk | www.elektrotechnika.sk | www.estetika.sk | www.farmakologia.sk | www.filozofia.sk | Fyzika | www.futurologia.sk | www.genetika.sk | www.chemia.sk | www.lingvistika.sk | www.politologia.sk | www.psychologia.sk | www.sexuologia.sk | www.sociologia.sk | www.veda.sk I www.zoologia.sk to Firth of Forth River Carron Grangemouth New entrance (open 2013) New sea lock  A905  road  M9  River Carron 2 Sea lock, new lock + Kelpies 3 Carron Cut lock 4 Abbotshaugh lock 5-10 Falkirk Flight (6)  A9  Camelon bridge 11-16 Falkirk Flight (6) Union Canal Falkirk Wheel Golden Jubilee lock Bonnybridge lifting bridge 17 Underwood lock 18-19 Castlecary locks  A80  bridge 20 Wyndford lock Auchinstarry basin Aqueduct Luggie Aqueduct  A806  Nicholson bridge  A803  Glasgow Road bridge  A807  Hungryside bridge  A879  Lambhill bridge Monkland Canal Port Dundas Basin New Lock Craighall Road Speaker Martin's Lock Spiers wharf Possil Road Aqueduct Applecross St Basin Bilsland Drive Aqueduct Port Dundas branch  A81  Maryhill aqueduct 21-25 Maryhill locks (5) Kelvin Aqueduct 26-27 Temple locks (2)  A739  Temple Road bridge 28-32 Clobberhill locks (5)  A82  Gt Western Road bridges 33-35 Boghouse locks (3) 36 lock Forth and Cart Canal 36a  A814  Dalmuir drop lock  A898  Erskine bridge 37 Old Kilpatrick lock 38 Bowling Basin lock Bowling Basin 39 Old Sea lock (disused) Bowling Basin Sea Lock River Clyde