Kiel had a firmer commercial basis than the more speculative Panama project. It extended existing canal networks and shortened the voyage around Denmark for coastal and Baltic trade. The original waterway was not designed around the largest modern ships, and work between 1907 and 1914 enlarged it for the next generation of vessels. An economically useful regional canal could therefore precede the strategic demands later placed upon it.
Notable Point · 5:01-5:56
Kiel begins as a coastal-trade canal
Kiel's original dimensions reveal a regional commercial project that had to be widened from 1907 to 1914 for a newer generation of larger ships.