Briare aqueduct
Pont-canal de Briare
Interesting facts
- The trough is carried over fifteen spans of about 37 metres each, resting on stone piers three metres thick.
- The channel was set 1.5 metres above the highest flood ever recorded on the Loire at Briare.
- The project was estimated to cost about 6.5 million francs.
- Linking the new crossing into the waterway network required about 14 kilometres of new canal.
- The first boat across, the Aristide, was captained by a boatman named Ernest Guingamp.
- The trough was designed for barges drawing up to 1.8 metres of water.
- The Magdeburg Water Bridge that took its record in 2003 is 918 metres long, more than 250 metres longer.
- The aqueduct appeared on television in a 1973 episode of the French series Karatekas and Co.
Why it is worth it
At Briare a canal sails across the Loire. Boats travelling between the Loire valley and the Seine cross the river in a steel trough of water more than 660 metres long, lined on both sides by towpaths and a row of ornate lamp standards, with the river flowing freely far beneath through fifteen wide spans. From its opening in 1896 until the Magdeburg Water Bridge was completed in 2003, it was the longest steel navigable aqueduct in the world.
The bridge carries the Canal latéral à la Loire, not, as is often assumed, the older Briare Canal, which it joins just beyond. Before it was built, barges had to cross the Loire at river level through a dyked channel at Mantelot, upstream of the town, a slow and dangerous passage at the mercy of floods, low water and ice. A masonry aqueduct had been considered when the lateral canal was dug in the 1820s and 1830s, but solid arches would have acted as a dam in a major flood; only mild steel allowed spans open enough to let the Loire's floods pass. The project was declared of public utility in 1889 as part of the programme to bring the route up to the Freycinet gauge. It was designed by the engineers Léonce-Abel Mazoyer, Charles Sigault and Pierre Moreau. Gustave Eiffel's company built the masonry piers and abutments between 1890 and 1896, and the steel channel came from Daydé & Pillé of Creil. The boat Aristide made the inaugural crossing on 16 September 1896.
The channel is 6 metres wide and 2.2 metres deep, holding more than 13,000 tonnes of water, and rests on fourteen stone piers; with its towpaths the whole structure is 11.5 metres wide. Its entrances are guarded by pairs of rostral columns modelled on those of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, and the decorative castings came from foundries at Fourchambault and Tusey. Eight sluices allow the trough to be drained in a hard freeze. The aqueduct has been a listed historic monument since 1976 and appeared on a French postage stamp in 1990.
Briare itself is a small town in the Loiret department where several waterways meet: besides the aqueduct, the lateral canal links here with the Briare Canal, one of the oldest canals in France, begun in 1604 and completed in 1642, which leads north towards the Seine.
Getting there
The aqueduct joins the town of Briare to Saint-Firmin-sur-Loire in the Loiret department. The town of Gien lies about 10 km downstream. Briare station, on the line from Moret-Veneux-les-Sablons towards Nevers and Lyon, is served by TER regional trains. The nearest major airport is Paris-Orly (ORY), about 125 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Briare Aqueduct in central France carries the Canal latéral à la Loire over the river Loire on its journey to the Seine. It replaced a river-level crossing from the canal to meet the Briare Canal that was hazardous in times of flood. Between 1896 and 2003 it was the longest navigable aqueduct in the world, until the opening of the Magdeburg Water Bridge.
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