There's a boat somewhere sailing straight up into the sky, no ramps, no long wait, just a smooth ride on a giant turning wheel. That is exactly what happens in Falkirk, Scotland, where a rotating boat lift called the Falkirk Wheel has been carrying vessels between two canals since 2002. The structure connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, which is 35 meters, or about 115 feet, higher, according to Scottish Canals, the body that runs the site. It might sound like something out of a science fiction story. It's actually an old idea, dressed up in modern steel.
A canal problem stuck in traffic
Before the creation of the Wheel, boats traveling between these two canals would have to travel through a series of 11 locks, which would take about an entire day. These locks were closed off in 1933 and remained so until decades later, as reported by Tony Gee & Partners, structural engineers of this project. By the late 1990s, British Waterways had plans to reconnect Glasgow and Edinburgh by water as part of a larger scheme called the Millennium Link. Instead of rebuilding the old locks, engineers came up with something more audacious: a lift that would spin boats up and down like a Ferris wheel. Scottish Canals said the design was successful and construction began at the site of a former tar works, with contaminated ground having to be cleared first.
How the wheel actually lifts a boat
The Falkirk Wheel operates on a principle first described by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes over 2,000 years ago: a floating object displaces a volume of water equal to its own weight. So when a boat enters one of the Wheel's two water-filled gondolas, it displaces an equal weight of water, which drains away. The gondola's total weight stays exactly the same whether or not it's carrying a boat, which is what keeps the whole structure balanced.
