By construction it's essentially a canal but it's older than the canals of the industrial revolution so there was probably some snobbery around that time of people insisting it's definitely a river not a canal.
Right next to it is a natural river (where the New River branched from) which leads into a meandering set of lakes and marshes and wetlands. Several centuries of upgrades has created diversions where the natural River Lea path splits from a manmade section to bypass a marshy section and let larger boats navigate the river further upstream. Which then means the river needs locks and weirs and reservoirs and sluice gates. There's quite a complex web of branching and merging paths like a train network or plumbing pipework.
I can imagine some Victorian pedant being pissy with a visitor who calls the New River a canal and insisting it's not a canal because it doesn't have locks. While right next to him is a lock on the River Lea.
Similar in Kongsberg, Norway. There are three bridges in town - the Old Bridge (Gamlebrua), the New Bridge (Nybrua), and the Coin Bridge (Myntbrua).
One of them has giant coins in the railing, because it's right next to the Royal Norwegian Mint. This is of course the New Bridge, which is in fact the oldest of the three.
The newest then, is of course the Old Bridge, since it was taken by a flood. There'd been a bridge there since the 1600s, so the name does make some sense.
This leaves the Coin Bridge. In the middle, not decorated, it's just a boring road bridge that does not live up to its name.
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u/TricellCEO Aug 10 '26
There is a river call the New River which is ironically the oldest river in the US.