Revolutionary motion

摘要

As a piece of steel engineering, the Falkirk wheel is revolutionary ― in every sense. It is the first-ever rotating boat lift, which lifts boats 35m from one canal to the other and vice versa. Set in the countryside near Falkirk in the Scottish Lowlands, the boat lift is the most exciting and dramatic part of the Millennium Link ― a ￡78 million investment to link the east and west coasts of Scotland with an inland waterway. The project also includes an extension of the Grand Union Canal, a tunnel underneath the Antonine Wall, a new aqueduct and a lock. Together with the wheel, they connect two long-derelict canals: the Grand Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canal, set 25m lower. Formerly, a staircase of 11 locks, dismantled in 1933, connected the canals.