The Falkirk Wheel, Falkirk

The Falkirk Wheel, completed in 2002, is the world's first and only rotating boat lift. It was designed to join the Forth & Clyde Canal and Union Canals across central Scotland. These 200-year-old canals used to be as vital as motorways are today, but haven't been used since the 1960s.

By looking at the problem from a new angle, civil engineers designed the Falkirk Wheel to lift boats from one canal level to the other over a distance of 35m, using almost no energy at all.

The team of 20 architects and engineers had just 3 weeks of intense brainstorming to come up with the unique design for the wheel, which replaces a series of 11 locks (and lots of elbow grease!) that used to link the two canals, in one elegant movement.

The amazing structure is part of the £78 million Millennium Link scheme to revitalise the waterways, which has included the renovation of 100 bridges, 49 aqueducts and 40 locks along its 110km route. 
   
Fast Facts

• Costing £17million, the wheel only took 22 months to build, but is designed to last for 120 years
  
• It can lift boats and 600 tonnes of water (that's about the same weight as 100 African elephants!), over 35m in under four minutes
  
• The wheel takes about 15 minutes to rotate. It used to take 8 hours to go from one level to another
  
• The two gondolas can carry four boats 20m long
  
• It is so well balanced that it can be turned by its 10 hydraulic motors using less energy than 2 boiling kettles
  
• The construction had to be completed around fish and bird breeding seasons to avoid disturbing the natural equilibrium of the canals
  
• The project also needed a new 104m long aqueduct and a 168m long tunnel - the first new canal tunnel built in Britain for a century