This is the centerpiece of the £84.5m, 68-mile-long Millennium Link, which connects Glasgow with Edinburgh by water. It includes the restored Forth and Clyde Canal - the world’s first sea-to-sea ship canal, built in the 18th century and reopened last year - and the smaller early 19th century Union Canal, which winds its way from Falkirk to Edinburgh. All was going well for the scheduled opening on 1st May 2002 until, two weeks earlier, vandals flooded the Wheel and damaged it and its surrounding landscape by the simple expedient of letting a surge of water pour through two brand-new Union Canal locks above it - which then cascaded over the whole structure. Why nobody appears to have thought of the possibility of flood damage, given that the two upper locks were designed and constructed as part of the overall Wheel project, is an open question.