Canals Canals were needed for the Industrial Revolution which was creating huge amounts of heavy produce which had to be moved. Roads simply could not handle such weights and the vehicles needed to move this produce did not exist. Canals were the answer to moving heave objects large distances. Canals were human made rivers which were deep enough to cope with barges which were capable of moving nearly forty tonnes of weight. This was far …showed first 75 words of 636 total…

…showed last 75 words of 636 total…These were a lot faster than barges and passengers used these in preference to canals. *Food that rotted quickly could not be transported by canal as refrigerated units had yet to be invented. *Canals could freeze up in winter and a hot summer could literally dry them out if they were not topped up with water on a regular basis. *And most importantly, trains were soon to take over the role played by the canals.