What a marvellous resource. This looks like a walk I'd enjoy.
The canal was planned by the
Marques de la Ensenada during
Fernando VI's reign.
[1] Its purpose was to boost trade by allowing
Tierra de Campos' wheat grain production to be transported from Castile to the northern harbour of
Santander and to other markets from there; vice versa, the canal was also meant to facilitate the inflow of products from the Spanish colonies into Castile.
[1]
The
Spanish War of Independence, budgetary constraints and the difficult passage of the
Cantabrian Mountainshampered and eventually reduced the initial plan of a 400 km so the canal never reached the
Bay of Biscay as initially planned.
[1] Overall, its construction took almost 100 years (from 1753 to 1849) and was eventually halted when railroads were built in northern Spain in the nineteenth century, superseding the project.
[1]
The canal was most used during the 1850-1870 period, when up to 400
barges plied the canal
towed by beasts of burden.
[1] Later on, the canal evolved into the spine of a huge irrigation system due to its relative inefficiency vs. railfreight as a means of transport. The locks on the canal were decommissioned in the twentieth century.
