It was reserved for Charles XII. to commence the serious undertaking of rendering navigable the Gotha and the falls of Trolhätten, but the work was not completed in his lifetime. The projected work, as proposed by the engineer Polhem, was to connect the Mælar and the Hielmar, the Hielmar and the Wenner, and the Wenner with the German Ocean.

Difficulties occurred in the way of completing the connection between Lake Wenner, or Wenmon, and the Baltic; and in 1806 Thomas Telford was consulted, at the instance of the King of Sweden, as to the best means of carrying out the communication. Telford[97] made a complete survey, and prepared plans which were adopted. In 1810, he again visited Sweden for the purpose of inspecting the excavations then begun, and took with him a number of English navvies and lockmakers, in order that the Swedes might be instructed in the work. As designed by Telford, the Gotha canal was 120 miles in length, including the lakes, of which 55 miles were artificial navigation. The locks are 120 feet long, and 24 feet broad. The width of the canal at the bottom is 42 feet, and the depth of the water is 10 feet.

The completion of the Gotha canal was justly regarded at the time as one of the most important and able engineering works of the day. Previous to Telford’s time, an artificial waterway, called the Carlsgraf Canal had been constructed in the time of Charles IX., and under his direction, to connect the Wenner with that part of the river Gotha where it is first navigable. From the end of this canal to the village of Trolhätta, a distance of five miles, the navigation of the river was uninterrupted, but when the cataracts of Trolhätten—locally spoken of as the “Gulf of Hell”—were approached, all farther navigation became impracticable through a space of about two miles. The river is here divided into four principal cataracts, separated by whirlpools and eddies, and descending through a perpendicular height of 100 feet. Several attempts having been made to construct a canal here, some of which ended in complete failure, while others, including that made in the time of Gustavus III., threatened to involve so much expense, that that monarch, after visiting the works, ordered them to be suspended, a wooden road was constructed alongside the river, from the beginning to the end of the cataracts, in order to facilitate the conveyance of merchandise to Gothenburg.

The following data relative to the Gotha Canal are extracted from the large atlas of plates published along with the life of that engineer for the purpose of illustrating the principal works of Telford.

Details of the Gotha Canal.
Distance.Lockage.
Canal.Lake. Fall.Rise.
miles yards miles yards ft. in.
Canal from Lake Wenern
 to the Wiken 221039 .... .. 158 0
Lake Wiken .... 12318 ..west end
of summit
Canal at Edet ..534
Lake .... ..535
Canal ..581 ....
Lake .... ..117 East end
of summit.
Canal near Forsvik ..496 ft. in.
Lake Boltensjön .... 4803 9 9
Canal at Rödesund ..486
Lake Wettern .... 191136
Canal between Wettern
 and Lake Boren		 2841 .... 49 9
Lake Boren .... 61140
Canal from thence to
  Roxen		 14 63 .... 130 9
Lake Roxen .... 151423
Canal from thence to
 Asplangen		 4446 .... 19 6
Lake Asplangen. .... 3208
Canal from thence to the
 Baltic near Soderkoping  		10494 .... 86 6
Total length of canal 541460 .... 296 3
Total length of lake
 navigation		 .... 62400 296 3
454 3
Total length of canal and miles yards
 lakes in English miles 117 100

About a mile below the cataracts, the course of the Gotha was again interrupted by a fall called Akerstræum; and at the end of last century a canal 182 feet long, and 36 feet broad, was constructed here, through a bed of rock, until, at the other end of the cataract, the river is clear to Gothenburg. Before the construction of the Gotha Canal, the traffic for Gothenburg was unloaded at the cataracts, carried over the wooden road to the end of the falls by horses, and again put on board vessels which carried it through the Akerstræum Canal to its ultimate destination.[98]

At Trolhätta, about 1¼ mile below the point where the river Göta-Elf leaves the Wenner Lake, there occurs a series of falls and rapids, the river descending 108 feet in a length of about 4590 feet. The works which were commenced at this place early in the last century, were well advanced in 1755, when an unusually heavy flood caused much destruction and loss of life, and the abandonment of the works, never since resumed. The intention was to surmount the difference of level, viz., 108 feet, at the falls above mentioned, by three locks only, with a rise of 36 feet each. In the canal, as constructed in 1800, there is a chain of eight locks (still in service), but these being insufficient for the traffic, a second set of eleven were constructed alongside the former in 1844. These are cut in the solid granite. There are sixteen locks in all, with a fall of 142 feet on this canal (Trolhätta), which is 22 miles long. The breadth of the canal-bottom is 39 feet in soil and 23 feet 5 inches in rock, with a depth at mean water-level of 12 feet 8 inches. The number of vessels passing annually is about 7000.

The West Göta Canal, connecting the Wenner and Wetter lakes, rises from the former by a series of nineteen locks, or a height of 154 feet 6 inches, to the summit level, which is 300 feet above the sea, and the descent from here to the Baltic, viâ the East Göta canal, is by thirty-nine locks. The breadth of the bottom of these canals is 46 feet 9 inches with a mean depth of 9 feet 9 inches. These two canals were completed in 1832 at a cost of 887,500l. The length of navigation is 116⅔ miles, of which 54⅓ miles are artificial canal, and 62⅓ miles lake channel. The traffic is from 4000 to 5000 vessels per annum.

The Dalsland Canal.—The eastern spurs of the high range dividing Norway from Sweden run in the south through the small province of Dalsland towards Lake Wenern, and from numerous valleys, which descend more or less abruptly to the shore, and serve as channels for many torrents from the mountain ridges. There are often considerable falls, which supply a vast motive power to works of various kinds, chiefly bar-iron forges and saw-mills. There was one serious drawback to this industry. Lake Wenem afforded the only means of communication between Dalsland and the outer world; and to reach that lake from the various works, a long and costly land transport was the sole resource. This became more and more an obstacle as increased facilities were developed in other parts of the world. Hence, some forty years ago, the question of utilising the Dalsland water-courses as a means of transport was broached, and this was accomplished in the year 1868. Along the Norwegian frontier, northward, in the province of Wermland, there is a lake, the Stora Lee, 20 miles long, with an extreme width of 3 miles, which joins Lake Wenem by a water-course, having eleven continually descending basins, together constituting a fall of 200 feet. At the northern extremity of the Stora Lee are the Toksfor works. At a distance of 12 miles southward, where there is a fall of 28 feet, are the iron works of Lennartsfors. At this point the Stora Lee is joined by Lake Leelângen; and lower down, at the junction with Las Lake, motive power is supplied by a fall to the Billingsfors works. Farther on, towards Lake Wenem, there are the Gustafsfors Ironworks and the Skapfors Sawmills, where several falls occur, the highest being a fall of about 30 feet at Upperud Ironworks.

The Dalsland Canal Company having been formed, with the governor of the province, Count Sparre, as president, the directors in 1864 succeeded in engaging the assistance of the late Baron Nils Ericson, Colonel of Engineers. His plan to some extent varied from former projects, and comprised the following main conditions:—The construction of a canal at Hofverud, near Upperud, instead of a railway, so as to avoid unloading and reloading; a route from Las Lake, past the Billingsfors works to Leelângen; the adoption of the same dimensions for the whole length of the canal from Upperud to Stora Lee, viz., a depth of 5½ feet, a width of 13 feet at the bottom, and a length of 100 feet between the lock gates; and an increase in the number of locks between Lake Wenem and Stora Lee to twenty-five instead of fifteen, as proposed. The contract for constructing the canal according to this plan, including excavations round the fall at Hofverud and an aqueduct over the stream at that place, was taken at about 76,000l. sterling, raised chiefly by shares and, to some extent, by state subventions. It was stipulated that the dimensions of the canal should be such that vessels of 75 feet in length, 13 feet beam, and drawing 5 feet of water should be able to navigate it. Consequently the locks were mainly of the following dimensions:—