Canals are man-made waterways, usually connecting existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. They are used for transportation, often by barge or narrowboat on smaller canals, and by ship on canals that connect oceans. Inland canals preceded the development of railroads during the Industrial Revolution, and some canals were later drained and used as railroad rights-of-way.
Irrigation canals - man-made waterways for the delivery of water - preceded the use of transportation canals.
Canals have found another use in the 21st century, as wayleaves[?] for fibre optic telecommunications networks.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump