On April 1, 1968, the Ronquières inclined plane in Hainaut, Belgium, opened to the public. This engineering marvel allowed boats to ascend 68 meters over a distance of 1,432 meters without passing through any locks. The structure, which took six years to build, was designed to overcome a challenging geographical obstacle—the watershed between the Meuse and Scheldt river basins. The inclined plane remains a unique solution to the problem of navigating steep elevation changes in canal systems. The Ronquières inclined plane features two massive, mobile basins, each 91 meters long and 16 meters wide, designed to carry boats as they move along a 5% slope. These basins are supported by 236 rollers and are pulled by winches connected to massive counterweights of 5,500 tons each. The basins operate independently and are guided by rails, ensuring a smooth and controlled ascent or descent. The entire journey from the lower to the upper basin takes about 22 minutes at a speed of 1.2 meters per second, with the full transfer process, including the time to load and unload boats, taking around 45 minutes. The need for the Ronquières inclined plane arose due to the difficult terrain of the Seneffe-Ronquières canal section, which made conventional locks impractical and costly. An engineering commission, led by G. Willems, studied the issue for years before deciding on the inclined plane as a radical but effective solution. The construction involved moving millions of tons of earth and fill, and the resulting structure became a landmark in the region. The control tower, which rises over 120 meters, is now a visible symbol of the site and a tourist attraction. While the original purpose of the Ronquières inclined plane was to facilitate commercial river traffic, this has since declined, and the site has been transformed into a major tourist destination. Today, around 8,500 boats use the inclined plane annually, and the site welcomes nearly 100,000 visitors each year. Similar structures exist in other parts of Europe, such as the Saint-Louis-Arzviller inclined plane in France, which uses a different design by tilting the basins transversely instead of sliding them along a slope. Despite these variations, both the Ronquières and Saint-Louis-Arzviller structures showcase the ingenuity of engineering in overcoming natural obstacles in canal systems.