1978 Chesterfield Canal Unplugged

In 1978, workers dredging the Chesterfield Canal in England lifted a heavy chain they found on the canal bed. As soon as they pulled it up, the entire section of canal drained away. The chain had been fixed to a wooden plug that engineers had installed about 200 years earlier to let them empty the canal for maintenance. Because no one remembered it was there, one routine cleanup accidentally uncorked the waterway.

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