Engebret Soot
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Engebret Soot (born May 26 1786, died May 26 1859) is known as the father of the Halden Canal in Norway. He constructed locks and canals for the transport of both watercraft and timber.
[edit] Biography
- Engebret Soot was born in Aurskog in 1786 and died in Otteid in 1859
- In 1824 he built works from Fredrikshald to enable log transport from Stora Lee in Sweden into the Fredrikshald watershed.
- Soot built Norway's first canal in Østre Otteid in the years 1825-1827. The new log floating channel of 775 meter enabled the transport of logs to Halden.
- In 1849 he opened Soot Canal, Norway's first canal with locks. It was built to allow timber to be transported (floated) to the Halden sawmills. The canal was 1.5 km long and had 16 locks which extended from Lake Skjervangen at 185 m above sea level up to Lake Mortsjølungen at 201 m above sea level.
- This was followed by the Halden Canal for boats. In 1858 414 ships with a total of 950 passengers passed through the locks.
