Bystry canal

General Ignacy Prądzyński designed Augustów Canal in 1823 and the project started the next year to connect the Vistula River tributaries, through the Narew and the Biebrza rivers with the Neman River, and from the Neman, to the Baltic Sea. Its construction probably allowed the introduction of various new technologies to the region, including the telephone.
The November Uprising prevented construction until it was finally completed in 1838 when it was opened for navigation. This masterpiece of Polish military engineering never met its strategic function, to connect the Vistula with the Baltic Sea since Prussia stopped imposing punitive tariffs on the other Vistula route and the Russians arrested building of the Venta Canal.  The Vistula and the Neman were also linked to the Black Sea via the Oginsky Canal to the Dnieper, then through the Berezina Canal to the Dvina River.
The Bystry canal is part of the system which connects to lakes serving as reservoirs to regulate water levels.