John Desalvo, age 14, of Longview, Wash., for his question:

WHEN WAS THE KIEL CANAL OPENED?

The Kiel Canal is an artificial waterway in northwestern Germany that links the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. The canal was constructed between 1887 and 1895.

Also called the Norn Ostee Kanal, the waterway extends in a northeastern direction across the state of Schleswig Holstein from Brunsbuttelkoog, near the mouth of the Elbe River to Kiel on the Baltic Sea.

Since the canal was built, it has been enlarged. It is now about 60 miles long, 335 feet wide and 36 feet deep.

The Kiel Canal has shortened the distance between the North and Baltic seas by about 200 miles and it has eliminated the difficult passage around Jutland.

The canal was internationalized by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.