Cultural Routes and Heritage Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 38

Figure 2.6 The historic Grand Canyon Railway
holidays (Alderney Railway, 2013). The tiny 400-meter Great Laxey Mine
Railway on the Isle of Man was abandoned in 1929 with the closure of the
Great Laxey lead mine, but it was re-opened in 2004 to carry visitors along
a restored train line in replica train cars (British Heritage Railways, 2013).
Canals and towpaths
Canals were developed in North America during the 18th and 19th centu-
ries to provide water-based access between lakes and oceans, and around non-
navigable waterways, for the shipment of goods and people. In Europe, canal
networks have existed much longer, providing irrigation water to villages and
their fields, as well as to afford adequate drainage for lowlands, such as in
Holland and parts of Belgium. Included in the world's canal systems were
towpaths, which paralleled the water channel itself. Horses, mules, oxen or
humans used these towpaths to pull barges and help rafts along the canals.
While many of these historic waterways are still used for cargo-carrying
barges, many of them now serve a dual purpose, including tourism/recreation.
One fairly recent trend is the designation of historic canals as important heri-
tage routes (Means, 1999). Similarly, many original towpaths have become
recreational canal trails in North America and Europe (Banister et al. , 1992).
Canada's Welland and Rideau Canals are heritage waterways that origi-
nated as transportation corridors to bypass shallow river waters and water-
falls. The 26 km Welland Canal links Lake Ontario with Lake Erie in Canada.
Its lock system allows ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment
by bypassing Niagara Falls. It was extremely instrumental in the develop-
ment of industrial North A merican cities such a Detroit, Montreal, Cleveland,
Toronto and Windsor during the 19th and 20th centuries, and rendered the