Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen

This guide to Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen in Stockholm starts with a strange fact: Stockholm's bedrock is still rising after the last ice age, and by the 1700s that slow rebound had quietly closed the channel separating the royal park of Djurgården from the mainland into a malarial swamp. It follows the 1825 order to dig a new channel and the engineer Carl af Forsell, fresh from building the Göta Canal, who led ten years of digging through clay and stone. Listen for the swing bridge ahead, once cranked open by hand for passing boats.