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The Languedoc Canal |
Civil Engineering on a Grand Scale |
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Centuries
of Civil Engineering
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Andréossy, Antonia
François, comte (1761-1828)
Histoire du Canal du Midi, ou Canal de Languedoc. Nouvelle éd.
Paris: Impr. de Crapelet, 1804.
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The grand scale of the Languedoc Canal is thought to have appealed to
Louis XIV, who seemed to prefer that all projects associated with his
reign have a quality of grandeur. A proposal for the canal dates to at
least 1516, when Leonardo da Vinci accompanied the French King Francis I
home from Milan and discussed a method for building a canal across
southern France, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. But it was not
built until the reign of the Sun King, who opened the canal in 1681 after
fourteen years of construction. Serious consideration of the canal was
possible only after a practical scheme for supplying water to the summit
was worked out in 1661 by Pierre-Paul Riquet (1604-1680) with the
assistance of François Andreossy (1633-1688). Even now, building it seems
a fantastic undertaking. It crosses rivers, passes through tunnels, uses
three major aqueducts, is 620 feet above the Mediterranean at its highest
point, includes over 100 locks, crosses over countless streams that are
routed underneath through culverts, and flows beneath numerous road
bridges constructed across it. In time the name was changed to the Canal
du Midi – a prototype for later canals, and one that is still in use.
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