The Forth and Clyde Canal was built to provide a link between the East and West Coasts of Scotland. It is 35 miles long, from Grangemouth on the Forth to Bowling on the Clyde. 
Work started on the Canal on the 10th of June1768.
By 1775, the Canal had reached the outskirts of Glasgow, but had to be suspended through lack of funds. About eight years later, money raised from the sale of forfeited Jacobite estates allowed the project to be completed.
Unfortunately, it was closed to navigation on the 1st of January 1963.
Thanks to contributions from the Millennium Commission, Scottish Enterprise, the European Union,  Local Authorities and British Waterways, the Canal is set to be given a new lease of life.
The £78m project will restore the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals to their former glory, linking the West and East coasts of Scotland with fully navigable waterways for the first time in over 35 years.