Trollhätte canal

Polhem's canal line

Christopher Polhem's unfinished canal line in Trollhättan.

In 1717 Christopher Polhem presented a proposal about a canal through Trollhättan to king Karl XII. The plans incorporated three locks through the falls in Trollhättan. This proposal was accepted in 1718, but the works had hardly started before the king was killed at the battle of Fredrikstad. This meant shortage of money for Polhem and the works were stopped.
In 1746 Polhem presented a modified project and this time the works could start directly.
In 1754 the first, uppermost lock was finished.
In 1755 a great amount of floating timber broke the dam that had been built to make the canal works possible. Nine workers died. There was very little work to do to finish the whole canal, but due to the accident all works were stopped.
Shortage of money, as well as rising dougts about the plans were other obstacles for Polhem.
After this, Daniel Thunberg and Samuel Sohlberg, both pupils of Polhem, made a new plan for the canal through Trollhättan. They wanted to blast a new line through the rocks east of the river. Their plan was followed when works started again in the 1790ies.

The picture above shows the canal line from midways towards north
and the picture at right shows the canal line from midways towards south.

Do send comments or further information to Bosse Arnholm!

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