A canal is any artificial channel for carrying large amounts of water. But most people think of canals as waterways for barges.

The idea of making artificial waterways is very old. Canals have been in use in China for thousands of years.

Canals became popular in Britain and many other European and American countries at the end of the 18th century. That was because factories had been invented and steam engines were used to power the machines in them. That meant that the factories needed huge amounts of coal. So the Canal Age, as it was called, began to move coal using horse-drawn barges. Later barges using steam engines were used.

Canals were dug from factories to coal mines and to ports and cities that bought the goods from the factories. The canal was one of the things that caused the Industrial Revolution.

However, the Canal Age only lasted about 50 years. That is because the railways were invented, and they were much faster than barges. As a result, by the middle of the 19th century, barge traffic was getting smaller.

Canals are still used in some parts of the world, but only where the canals are very large. Otherwise, as in Britain, they are now mainly used by pleasure boats.