Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1783-01-20
This morning we went to see the falls which did not answer my expectations, but this place
is still more famous for the expence the Sweeds have been at to cut a canal from hence to
the sea so that Swedish vessels might come from the Atlantic, without being obliged to pass
the Sound:1 but after all they have not been
able to succeed in their enterprize.2 After
having seen everything remarkable here, we return'd in Slays to the first Post and then we
took our carriage; but could not get further on than Wennersborg
That is, Öresund (the Sound), the strait between Sjælland Island, Denmark (on which Copenhagen is located), and southwest Sweden, connecting the Kattegat, an arm of the North Sea, with the Baltic. At its narrowest point the strait is two and one-half miles wide.
The Göta Canal, a waterway of canals, lakes, and rivers which passes around the Trollhättan Falls and connects Göteborg with Stockholm, was not completed until 1832.