A closer look
Canals were the economic lifeblood of the industrial revolution, allowing heavy raw materials to be dragged slowly through man-made ditches by miserable mules plodding along the towpath. Before railroads, floating coal on a stagnant trench of water was the fastest way to power an empire. Today, these historic waterways have been completely gentrified, populated by narrowboats painted in bright, cheerful colors and driven by retirees seeking a tranquil getaway. It is highly amusing that the grim, polluted industrial arteries of the nineteenth century are now premium real estate where people pay a fortune to float through dirty water at four miles per hour while aggressively defending their highly coveted mooring spots from other floating hipsters
