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Bunau-Varilla, Philippe Jean

(Encyclopedia)Bunau-Varilla, Philippe Jean fēlēpˈ zhäN bünōˈ-värēyäˈ [key], 1859–1940, French engineer, prominent in the Panama Canal controversy. An engineer after 1884 in the original French company ...

Martinelli, Ricardo

(Encyclopedia)Martinelli, Ricardo (Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal) 1952–, Panamanian business executive and political leader. The son of Italian immigrants, he became the head of a successful supermarket cha...

Albert Canal

(Encyclopedia)Albert Canal, waterway, c.80 mi (130 km) long, N Belgium, from the Meuse River to the Scheldt River; constructed 1930–39. The canal connects the important industrial region around Liège with the po...

Grand Canal

(Encyclopedia)Grand Canal, Chinese Da Yunhe [large transit river], longest in the world, extending c.1,000 mi (1,600 km) from Beijing to Hangzhou, E China, and forming an important north-south waterway on the North...

Erie Canal

(Encyclopedia)Erie Canal, artificial waterway, c.360 mi (580 km) long; connecting New York City with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the leve...

Midland Canal

(Encyclopedia)Midland Canal, Ger. Mittelland Kanal, artificial waterway system of Germany, extending eastward c.200 mi (320 km) along the North German plain from the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, to Magdeburg, Germa...

Lynn Canal

(Encyclopedia)Lynn Canal, natural inlet, c.90 mi (145 km) long, 7–12 mi (11–19 km) wide, SE Alaska. It connects in the S with Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage and thrusts north between mountains to break fin...

Love Canal

(Encyclopedia)Love Canal, section of Niagara Falls, N.Y., that formerly contained a canal that was used as chemical disposal site. In the 1940s and 50s the empty canal was used by a chemical and plastics company to...

Kiel Canal

(Encyclopedia)Kiel Canal, artificial waterway, 61 mi (98 km) long, in Schleswig-Holstein, N central Germany, connecting the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. At sea level, the canal extends from Kiel on the Baltic to ...

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