| Year Built | Name | Extent |
| 540-1320 | Grand Canal | Beijing – Hangzhou (2,500 km) |
| 11th Century | Naviglio Grande | Milan – Adriatic (30 km) |
| 1390-97 | Stecknitz Canal | Elbe – Trave (11 km) |
| 1604-42 | Briare Canal | Seine – Loire (58 km) |
| 1667-81 | Canal du Midi | Garonne – Mediterranean (279 km) |
| 1732 | Ladoga canal | St. Petersburg – Volga (110 km) |
| 1759-61 | Bridgewater Canal | Worsley – Manchester (16 km) |
| 1784-1833 | Rhine-Rhone canal | Strasburg-Mulhouse-Burgundy (319 km) |
| 1810-24 | North Sea canal | Amsterdam – North Sea (20 km) |
| 1817-25 | Erie canal | Buffalo – Albany (544 km) |
| 1821-25 | Lachine Canal | Montreal – Lake St. Louis (15 km) |
| 1836-45 | Ludwigskanal | Main – Danube (172 km) |
| 1838-54 | Rhine – Marne canal | Saverne gap (314 km) |
| 1859-69 | Suez Canal | Mediterranean – Red Sea (112 km) |
| 1894 | Manchester Ship Canal | Manchester – Liverpool (64 km) |
| 1887-95 | Kiel Canal | Baltic Sea – North Sea (99 km) |
| 1906-14 | Panama Canal | Atlantic Ocean – Pacific Ocean (80 km) |
| 1905-38 | Mittellandkanal | Rhine – Elbe (320 km) |
Source: adapted from K. Leibrand (1970) Transportation and Town Planning, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p. 24.
Although several canal systems were built well before the industrial revolution, such as the Grand Canal in China, the 18th and 19th centuries saw the acceleration of canal projects.