Waterway
Encyclopedia : W : WA : WAT : Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. These include rivers, lakes, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:
- The waterway must be deep enough to allow the draft depth of the vessels using it;
- The waterway must be wide enough to allow passage for the beam width of the vessels using it;
- The waterway must be free of barriers to navigation such as waterfalls and rapids, or have a way around them (such as canal locks);
- The current of the waterway must be mild enough to allow vessels to make headway.
At one time, canals were built mostly for small wooden barges drawn by horses or other draft animals. Today, major canals are built to allow passage of large ocean-going vessels. See Ship Canal.
See also
- Atlantic Ocean
- Pacific Ocean
- Indian Ocean
- Arabian Sea
- Great Lakes
- Strait of Magellan
- Cape of Good Hope
- Panama Canal
- Suez Canal
- Erie Canal
- Cape Cod Canal
- Saint Lawrence Seaway
- Great Lakes Waterway
- Intracoastal Waterway
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.