[1] The route of the Bydgoszcz Canal finds its way through an ancient valley about 2 km wide, surrounded by steep edges: The area was created about 12,000 years ago by a divide between the basins of Oder and Vistula rivers.

Nearby Bydgoszcz, works started east of Rynarzewo, run by Mr Małachowski, landlord in Łabiszyn: in the 1770s, trenches were excavated and usable as a portion of a navigable canal in the area.

Main aims to be achieved were facilitating Polish goods exports to Western Europe, as well as commercial exploitation of forest resource (neglected so far), while weakening the quasi-monopoly of the then-Prussian city of Danzig.

[6] On 9 July 1766, during a meeting of the Committee of the Crown Treasury, a plan was presented by artillery captain and royal geographer Franciszek Florian Czaki.

[8] The Prussian project was worked out by several personalities: Frederick the Great, of course, but also politician Franz von Brenkenhoff, engineer Hermann Jawein or Minister of Foreign Affairs Ewald Friedrich Hertzberg.

Presumably, during his journey through the lands occupied by Prussia, Hermann Jawein was the first to identify the potential of the local hydrographic system, in particular meadow resources, which could be obtained after draining the Bydgoszcz canal valley.

In February 1772, this idea was brought to the attention of governor Franz von Brenkenhoff, who, once having investigated the situation on the spot, went to talk king of Prussia Frederick II into approving the project.

It was now possible to ferry goods through inland waterway from Vistula, Bug, San and Narew rivers to Szczecin, thus bypassing Baltic Sea.

The first period of use of the canal was difficult, since Prussia did not allocate funds to maintain equipment and construction (removing sand, vegetation or strengthening the banks).

In the area of Dębinek, a new weir was built so as to bring waters from Noteć river to the Górnonotecki Canal and a new lock in Nakło-West was constructed.

Works of Ernst Conrad Peterson were of such high quality, that for decades the canal carried on its operations without any additional extensive repair, except for the replacement of 15–20 years old wooden lock elements.

After 1870, Europe witnessed a significant acceleration of inland navigation: railways were still expensive, and transport of bulk cargo by water was still considered the most profitable means.

In consequence, it was decided to dig a new 1,630 metres (1.01 mi)-long canal section on the district of Okole (in Bydgoszcz) and to build two new, larger locks.

Eventually, city authorities decided to transform this portion into fish ponds with plantations, called the Park on Bydgoszcz Canal; it is today a Polish natural reserve sector.

At the end of WWI, Bydgoszcz Canal and part of the Vistula-Oder Waterway were located within the boundaries of the newly reborn Second Polish Republic.

Shipping companies were flourishing at the time, e.g. the Lloyd Bydgoski, Bromberger Schleppschiffahrt, Towarzystwo Akcyjne, which operated from its seat in Bydgoszcz.

Among the never-achieved plans of the Nazi authorities was the so-called Bydgoszcz bypass: a channel running from Śluza Osowa Góra and connecting directly with the Vistula river via the north of Fordon district.

As far as canal investments are concerned, only the section of Brda river witnessed a modernization in 1970, together with Bydgoszcz shipping port facilities (new quay and set up of five massive cranes).

Four locks are located on the eastern segment of the route, within Bydgoszcz territory, since the canal reaches its highest point about 2 km west of the city limits, where Vistula and Oder river basins divide.

Passed these 4 locks, the way westward runs on 16.5 kilometres (10.3 mi) at its highest water level: on the past, barges were hauled on this section by burlaks.

[2] Wood rafted through the canal, of which the vast majority was pine, originated mostly from the Congress Poland (75%), but also from Galicia (12%), Russian Empire (5%) and Tuchola Forest (6%).

Almost the entire transport of wood was channeled into central Germany: Berlin, Magdeburg, Hamburg, Dresden and lands over the Elbe and Havel.

Till the 1980s, the canal acted as a route, playing a decisive economic role: it thus contributed to the development of Bydgoszcz, Kuyavia and Pałuki areas by flowing into Germany agricultural and natural resources from these regions.

Other regions indirectly benefited from the Bydgoszcz Canal, like East Prussia, West Pomerania and central Germany (Szczecin, Berlin, Hambourg, Brandenburg) from where industrial goods were exported eastward.

[2] Initially a city with wealth based on grain (storage and milling) imported from Poland, Bydgoszcz became at the eve of the 20th century a large center for trade and wood industry, thanks to its canal.

Wharfs were laid on several kilometers, busy with sawmills, and in Bydgoszcz was established the only Wood exchange market in the Polish interwar period.

Today, current transport through the Canal -as well as on the entire Vistula-Oder Waterway- is relatively small compared to its potential (up to several hundred thousand tons annually).

[19] Some towns such as Santok, Nakło nad Notecią or Bydgoszcz have started to build tourist infrastructure focusing on the canal theme.

A water tram, (Polish: Bydgoski Tramwaj Wodny), has been running since 2004 every summer along the channeled Brda river in downtown Bydgoszcz.

A founding committee meeting was first held on 31 March 2005 in III LO premises, itself located since 1879 on the very area of the Old Bydgoszcz canal natural park.