Hacker News Reader

First of all, I believe this should be called a canal, since rivers are naturally formed and canals built.

> Spanning a length of 114 kilometers,

Even the Mittelland Canal in Germany is 326km[0], so how it it the largest 'manmade river' in the world?

Being "naturally formed" isn't a requirement to be a river. Being gravity fed and naturally flowing is. A canal doesn't have significant flow.

But would you really call this concrete structure you see in the picture a river?

If the LA River is any historical precedent, yes.

If the LA River can be a river, why not?

The flow of water was there before the concrete constructions were made, I guess?

Not necessarily. It's common practice to built structure to control and redirect rivers around developments. That doesn't stop it from being a river.

Sounds like marketing; if they call it a canal there's longer ones, if they call it a river it has its own definitions. Or something.