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The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The lift reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project.

The Union Canal is 110 feet (33 metres) above the level of the Forth and Clyde Canal and a staircase of 11 locks was constructed to link the two canals; this flight of locks took nearly a day to transit. As the canals fell into decline, the locks fell into disrepair and were dismantled in 1933. In 1998, Work started on the ambitious Millennium Link projects to rejoin the two canals including the construction of a boat lift which would also be a showpiece structure. The design chosen was for a rotating lift. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of only two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton Boat Lift (SJ6475 : Anderton Boat Lift) in Cheshire.
Link (Scottish Canals video) explains how the wheel operates.