The Caledonian Canal is 96.5km (60 miles) long in total, 35.4km (22 miles) of this is man made. The remaining 61.1km (38) miles is made up of freshwater and sea lochs.
The canal is twinned with Rideau Canal in Canada and Götta Kanal in Sweden, also designed by Telford.
The canal was built 14ft deep, 6ft shallower than in Telford’s original design and was too shallow for the ships, which were getting larger at the time. There are 29 locks and 10 swing bridges – eight road and two rail – along the canal.