Bydgoszcz Canal

About

Bydgoszcz Canal (Polish: Kanał Bydgoski, German: Bromberger Kanal) is a canal between the cities of Bydgoszcz and Nakło nad Notecią in Poland. It is 24.7 km long and connects the Vistula river with the Oder river, through the Brda and Noteć rivers (the latter ending in the Warta river which itself ends in the Oder). The level difference along the canal is regulated by 6 locks. The canal was built in 1772–1775 on the order of King Frederick II of Prussia after the First Partition of Poland. The Bydgoszcz Canal has been listed on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List, Nr.A/900/1-27, on 30 November 2005.

The route of the Bydgoszcz Canal finds its way through an ancient valley about 2 km wide, surrounded by steep edges:

- on the north, the Krajeńskie Lake District banks are 25 to 40 m high;

- on the south the upper slopes of the Toruń basin are 10 to 15 m high. The area was created about 12,000 years ago by a divide between the basins of Oder and Vistula rivers. The canal starts in downtown Bydgoszcz, flowing through the western part of the city, it then crosses Bydgoszcz district on 7 km and ends at Nakło nad Notecią.

The Bydgoszcz Canal is a key element of the Vistula-Oder Waterway (294.3 km long), which in turn is part of the international Waterway E70, connecting Antwerp ( Belgium ) and the Atlantic Ocean to Klaipėda (Lithuania) and the Baltic Sea. Its main intended role comes as being a component of this east–west navigable shipping route.

The Vistula–Oder Waterway passes through the Brda River, a tributary of the Vistula, and connects to the Bydgoszcz Canal, which contains two water locks located within the city.

Beyond Bydgoszcz, the waterway continues through the canal to Nakło nad Notecią, passing through 14 water locks. At Nakło nad Notecią, it follows the Noteć and Warta rivers before ultimately joining the Oder River. Several large harbors and berths are available en route: Bydgoszcz, Nakło nad Notecią, Ujście, Czarnków, Krzyż Wielkopolski, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Santok.

Assumptively, navigation between Brda and Noteć rivers has taken place in a very distant past, considering archeological foundings:

- in 1827, an anchor was found where stands today Grunwaldzka Street ;

- in 1840, a large remains of a ship and a docking installation were unearthed near the village of Łochowo. The Vistula and Oder rivers were only 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) apart, considering the situation of their tributaries (Noteć and Brda rivers): the junction of both hydrographic basins seemed unavoidable. First plans were established as soon as technical and political opportunities appeared. Discussions to link the Noteć and the Brda first occurred in the 16th century during the Polish-Brandenburg talks and were renewed in the 1630s by king Władysław IV Vasa.

In the 1750s, canal schemes were very popular: first realizations were already completed in France, England or Germany, while in Poland, Prince Michał Kazimierz Ogiński supported the construction of the Oginski Canal, and the Dnieper–Bug Canal was completed at the end of the 18th century. Nearby Bydgoszcz, works started east of Rynarzewo, run by Mr Małachowski, landlord in Łabiszyn : in the 1770s, trenches were excavated and usable as a portion of a navigable canal in the area.

One of the first major projects under consideration by King Stanisław August Poniatowski was a channel linking the Noteć with the Brda via Bydgoszcz. Main aims to be achieved were facilitating Polish goods exports to Western Europe, as well as commercial exploitation of forest resource (neglected so far), while weakening the quasi-monopoly of the then-Prussian city of Danzig. Politically, a consideration speaking against this concept was that such a canal could in fact increase the power of the Kingdom of Prussia.

On 9 July 1766, during a meeting of the Committee of the Crown Treasury, a plan was presented by artillery captain and royal geographer Franciszek Florian Czaki. He proposed to build the canal where the Noteć was the closest to Bydgoszcz. It was planned to be 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi) long, 9 metres (30 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11 ft) deep. The level difference (18 metres (59 ft)) between the Brda and the Noteć was compensated by six water locks. Construction would have been carried out by a private company, which would then have received the right to collect taxes in return. Approval for building this project was not given by the Sejm, due to the political turmoils of the time (1768): Bar Confederation, then First Partition of Poland. In retrospect, the project was not devoid of technical defects, especially in under-estimating the requirement of water resources that could be found locally (streams and wetlands ).

The Prussian project was born after the first partition of Poland. Lands where the Vistula, Brda and Noteć flowed were all under the control of the Kingdom of Prussia and Frederick the Great took specific interest in this situation. The Prussian project was worked out by several personalities: Frederick the Great, of course, but also politician Franz von Brenkenhoff, engineer Hermann Jawein or Minister of Foreign Affairs Ewald Friedrich Hertzberg. Presumably, during his journey through the lands occupied by Prussia, Hermann Jawein was the first to identify the potential of the local hydrographic system, in particular meadow resources, which could be obtained after draining the Bydgoszcz canal valley. In February 1772, this idea was brought to the attention of governor Franz von Brenkenhoff, who, once having investigated the situation on the spot, went to talk king of Prussia Frederick II into approving the project. Many benefits were expected from the completion of the canal:

- creating an alternate trading pole (after Danzig);

- improving transport and communication within the newly expanded Province of Brandenburg ;

- revitalizing the central Noteć valley;

- colonizing the Brda and Noteć rivers. The canal design was shaped in spring of 1772. It hinged on a classic solution: the draining and re-routing of the ancient urstromtal. Initially, plans comprised the use of water supplies from:

- Ślesińskiego Lake (now Stawy Kardynalskie in Ślesin ) near Nakło;

- streams flowing from the Lake District north of Bydgoszcz;