Yep, but it was originally for the horse-power!
This aqueduct is 'rather' modern being completed in 1801. What makes it truly spectacular is its length (1/5th mile), height (max 136 ft) and 18 piers.
Here is a picture of it from ground level!
That’s beautiful. Notice there’s a walking lane also, I think.
Yep, but it was originally for the horse-power!
This aqueduct is 'rather' modern being completed in 1801. What makes it truly spectacular is its length (1/5th mile), height (max 136 ft) and 18 piers.
Here is a picture of it from ground level!
Originally, the “walking lane” was so a horse or mule could tow the barge.
Well, that walking lane is the original towpath for the horses pulling the canal boats. No engines back then!
(Over the aqueduct, there is obviously room for one-way traffic only. So, a few go by one way, then the other way.)
On the wider canals, boats can go both ways, but there was one towpath, and so the faster boat (higher priority mail boat usually) kept going, and the slower freight boat stopped, let his line sink down to the bottom of the canal. That let the faster boat’s horses step over the tow line and keep going. Then the slow boat started walking again.