Moscow canal

Peter I had an idea to make a water way from Moscow to the Baltic Sea, as it could be quite reliable and cheap. For this purpose he used to go to the town of Dmitrov for researching the future water route. However, only one hundred years later the real potential for linking the Volga and the Moskva River was talked about quite seriously.

A great volume of work was in prospect. But all kinds of activities at the canal were put an end to, because of making the railway line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Only at the beginning of the 30-s of the XX century the idea of linking the Volga with the Moskva River occured again. The erection of the canal has been fulfilled in an unprecedentedly short time, 4 years and 8 months, and it was put into operation on the 15-th of July 1937. It’s total length is 128 km, of which 19 km are taken up by reservoirs. The Channel of Moscow is 47 km longer than the Panama Chanel, 29 km longer than the Kyl Cannal and 71 km longer than the Manchester’s.

For short periods of time builders have erected 240 large structures including 11 locks, 11 dumps, 19 bridges, 3 river ports, a passanger terminal and lots of other stuctures. Currently all activities conducted here are taking place due to the need of supplementing the available water resources in the reservoir for their eventual transfer onto the Greater Moscow city water-supplies.

In the process of construction 202 millon of cubic meters of ground works have been carried out. In comparison with Suetsky canal, the volume of ground works accounted for 75 million of cubic meters, that is 2,7 times less. Further more, it has been erected only in a period of 10 years. If we could load all the ground, displaced during the process of it’s erection, into the rail vans; the giant train would be capable of surrounding the globe as much as 5,5 times around the equator.

The canal was mainly built by political prisoners who worked in terrible conditions do the expenses were minimal.In 1947 when the capital was celebrating its 800th anniversary and the canal its 10th aniversary it was named after Moscow.

It serves various purposes. Historically plagued by short water supply, Moscow by the 1930s urgently needed linking to the major water source. Well water utilized in the 1700s had long dried up: spring water used in the 1800s had also been exhausted. A 1904 pipeline to the Moscow river provided relief only about 25 years, after which time the river becomes so depleted that it could be crossed on foot in front of the Kremlin. The Channel made the water level much higher which has insreased the navigation and new ports have been opened. The banks of the Channel are a popular pleasure resort of Mosocvites.

Moscow became the port of five seas. Currently this canal route carries annually some million tones of cargo for the ports of the Baltic, Whtie, Caspian, Azov and the Black Seas.

In the shortest time, builders have erected a marvellous monument – one of the best and the lafgest navigation canals of theworld.