Channel of the Garonne

The channel of the Garonne , in the past named side channel in the Garonne , is a channel French of small gauge dating from the 19th century which connects Toulouse to Bordeaux. It is the essential prolongation of the Canal of the South which connects the the Mediterranean to Toulouse. This unit forms the channel of the two seas which connects the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Geography

Description

Skirting the right bank alternatively then the left bank of the the Garonne which it crosses with Agen by a tubular bridge. It is connected upstream to the Canal of the South in Toulouse, and emerges in the Garonne with Castets-in-Dorthe (the Gironde), to 54 km in the south-east of Bordeaux, not where the Fleuve is navigable thanks to the effect of the Marée. It is related to the Tarn, with the Baïse, the the Garonne as with the Lot via the descent in Fall of Buzet and 4 km in the Garonne.

The channel is fed out of water by two hydrants in the Garonne:

the Channel of Brienne in Toulouse
the drain of Laboulbène, in Agen (underground)

Excluded the five locks of Montech, doubled by the water slope éponyme (1974), all the locks have a length of 40,50m for a width of 6m. The locks of Montech kept the old gauge of 30m.

To Montech, it is connected to the Tarn with Montauban by a junction of 10,5 km and 11 locks.

Many bridges cross the channel. Eighty three suspended bridges strew the channel. They all were rebuilt in 1933 to adapt to modern circulation.

The channel in figures

History

Although its inauguration goes back to 1856, the Channel of the Garonne was in the spirits since the Antiquité.

Study of the project and genesis of the channel of the South

Before the channel known as " from both mers" that is to say built, the connection between “the two seas”, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, was done along the Spanish coasts, while passing by the Straits of Gibraltar. This tour, length of more than three thousand kilometers, obliged the navigators has to face the storms and the attacks Barbaresques.

Néron and Auguste in Antiquity, then Charlemagne, François ler, Charles IX and Henri IV had all the ambition to build a channel making it possible to avoid this long turning. Each one of them required to make of it the study and of many projects were born, but none ensured the feasibility of this junction. The great difficulty lies in the water supply of the channel which must highest receive a quantity of sufficient water in its point, i.e. at the level of the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, to ensure a constant navigation.

Between 1614 and 1662, under the impulse of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, five projects are born but none solves the problem of water provision of the channel. It is in 1662, that Pierre-Paul Riquet, while taking as a starting point the theory of Adam de Craponne put into practice at the beginning of the same century by Hugues Cosnier for the " channel of Loyre in Seyne" (or " Channel of Briare "), seeks to bring water to the place culminating of what will be the channel of the South (between Toulouse and Sète), in a point of division, with the Seuil of Naurouze, so that it runs out on both sides, towards the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Its knowledge of the Black Mountain and its rivers leads it to imagine a feeding system based on the diversion of water by the collecting of several brooks and rivers.

Realization of the channel

When Pierre-Paul Riquet completed the Royal channel of Languedoc (name, at the time, of the Canal of the South) between Sète and Toulouse in 1681, it had the idea to continue the channel in direction of the Atlantic: the future Side channel in the Garonne. However, the successive enlargings of the Castle of Versailles and the records of Louis XIV had emptied the cases of the kingdom and the project was quickly given up, for lack of means. During still nearly two centuries, one will be satisfied with the Garonne, in spite of his whims.

It is only in 1828 qu ' a ordinance prescribes the work study to be undertaken. The study is completed in 1830. France is in its Industrial revolution and it is vital for its development to create axes of communication for the circulation of the raw materials. It is the object of the laws of the " Becquey" plan; from 1821-1822. However, it is only into 1832 that the State grants the perpetual concession to the Magendie-Sion privately held company held by Sieur Doin. The law founding the construction of the Side Channel in the Garonne envisages the provisioning by water of the Garonne forwarded by the Canal of Brienne. However, Sieur Doin not respecting the commitments entered into, the State the déchoit of its rights, forfeiture which will be raised by the law of July 9th, 1835 and which fixes new times. Sieur Doin will die before even the beginning of work.

A third law in 1838 allocates a sum of fifteen thousand euros to the heirs to Sieur Dion and repurchases the parts of the project for twenty-three thousand euros. The project is then taken again in hand by the State and entrusted to the Divisionnaire inspector of the Bridges and Chaussées Jean-Baptiste de Baudre and begins in 1838 with a budget from six million euros. Construction begins in several points simultaneously and from the thousands of workmen will build the few 193 kilometers of waterway, carrying out remarkable works like the famous Pont-canal of Agen.

In 1844, the section Toulouse - Montech - Montauban is open. The channel is opened with navigation upstream Buzet-on-Lowers in 1853 and completed in 1856.

The channel until in the years 1970

The channel was completed at the same time as the line of Railroad Bordeaux - Sète which borrowed the same axis. The station of Agen accommodated its first convoys in 1857.

At its beginning, the train was not competitive with the river transport. The State made the error to concede in 1858 the lease of exploitation of the Side Channel with the Railroad company of the South, the direct competitor of the Batelier S. The latter then increased the taxation of the river transport and when the concession was withdrawn to him in 1898, the evil was made. Indeed, between 1850 and 1893, the Fret had decreased by two thirds.

However, until in the years 1970, the vocation of the Side Channel in the Garonne was primarily economic and related to goods transport in particular.

The channel since the years 1970

It is during these years, therefore very tardily, that the channel is put at the Gabarit Freycinet, whereas one projects to make in the same way for the channel of the South, to deal with the decline growing of the commercial traffic on all two channel. But another kind of traffic is born then, which makes it possible to save the connection of the two seas: river tourism.

This one develops enormously as from the years 1970, the boats bringing the visitors to the meeting of a natural and historical framework exceptional. The classification, in 1996, by the channel of the South to the inventory of UNESCO will still increase this tendency, and its side neighbor in the Garonne will profit from it.

More half of the activity of river tourism are concerned with the hiring of boats without license: nearly 1000 boats make the transit of the Mediterranean in the Atlantic (and conversely) each year. The boats for passengers, led by professionals propose various services: barge-hotel, boat-restaurant, boat-walk…

Of 12 boats in 1970, the tourist fleet counts 450 boats today and induces 500 established posts. The economic impact of this activity is important involving an increase of 10 to 60% of the branches of industry of the cities and bordering villages of the channel. As for its sales turnover, it is approximately 26 million euros per annum.

Works of art

See also: List of the locks of the channel of the Garonne

Along the channel the landscapes and the various cities of the Garonne Average follow one another as well as the works of Article principal works of art are:

the lock S: the channel counted in the beginning fifty six locks, to which the four locks are added ensuring the connection with the Garonne Castets-in-Dorthe.
the Slope of water of Montech: this original realization, startup in 1974, double five locks. It is the work of engineer Aubert, author also of the similar water slope of Fontsérannes, in Béziers, brought into service 10 years later.
the tubular bridges: seven tubular bridges make it possible the channel to cross the Garonne and its Affluent the most important S., length 600 meters and twenty-three cash arches, is the Pont-canal of Agen. The other tubular bridges make it possible in particular to cross the Tarn (Pont-canal of Cacor) and the Baïse (Pont channel on the Fall).

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