History
The original purpose of the Canal du Midi was to be a shortcut
between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, avoiding the long
sea voyage around hostile Spain, Barbary pirates, and a trip
that in the 17th century required a full month of sailing.
The Canal du Midi, near Toulouse joins the Garonne River
to the Mediterranean Ocean
The Canal du Midi basin at the town of Castelnaudary
The Canal du Midi was opened officially as the Canal Royal de
Languedoc on May 24, 1681. It was built under the supervision
of Pierre-Paul Riquet, a rich tax-farmer who bankrupted
himself in the personal undertaking and died destitute in
1680, just months before the Canal was opened to navigation.
Riquet was not alone in the undertaking: 12,000 workers toiled
for fifteen years to create the Canal.
The Canal du Midi, south of Toulouse, with a typical small
boat.
The Canal du Midi, approaching the round lock at Agde. Note
the tow path along the Canal.
Characteristics of the Canal
The Canal has 103 locks which serve to climb and descend a
total of 190 meters. The Canal has 328 structures, including
not only the locks but also bridges, dams and a tunnel.
At the town of Béziers the Canal crosses over the river Orb.
To
accomplish this feat, a pont-canal (bridge canal) was built.
The design of the Canal included the first canal passage ever
built through a tunnel. The Canal du Midi passes through a
passage 173 meters long under a hill at Enserune.
The Canal also involved building the first artificial
reservoir for feeding a canal waterway — a massive dam, 700
meters long, 30 meters above the riverbed and 120 meters thick
at its base, which was built by the labor of hundreds of local
women carrying soil in baskets.
The construction of the Canal du Midi was considered by people
in the 17th century as the biggest project of the day. Even
today it is seen as a marvellous engineering accomplishment.
World Heritage Site
The Canal du Midi is part of the waterway called the Canal des
Deux Mers (the Canal of the Two Seas) running between the
Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean that has been on the
UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1996. (The other
part of the Canal des Deux Mers is the Canal Latéral à la
Garonne (the Lateral Canal to the Garonne River).
The Canal du Midi, approaching the round lock at Agde.
Note the tow path along the Canal.
Today the Canal du Midi attracts a fifth of all river tourism
in France, more than the Seine. People who boat on the Canal
du Midi come not only from France, but also from Germany,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain, and many other
countries including the United States and Canada.
For more information
Credits
: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"Canal du Midi".
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