Going Around

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), and is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world. It was fully constructed and assembled at the Butterley Engineering plant in Ripley, Derbyshire. The structure was then dismantled in the summer of 2001, and transported on 35 lorry loads to Falkirk, before being reassembled into five sections on the ground and lifted into place. The caissons or gondolas carry a combined weight of 500 tonnes of water and boats, with the gondolas themselves each weighing 50 tonnes. The official opening was in 2002.