Briare Canal

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The Canal de Briare is one of the oldest canals in France.

[edit] Construction

It was ordered by Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, in order to develop the trade of grain, and to reduce the food shortages. Its construction started in 1604 and was completed in 1642. Between six and twelve thousand workmen worked on this canal which connects the basins of the River Loire and the River Seine. Hugues Cosnier obtained the contract to build the first canal crossing a watershed. It was thus necessary to use locks, invented (but never built) by Leonardo da Vinci. A flight of locks was built in Rogny: it has seven successive locks.

But the king Henri IV, withdrew his support for work. Hugues Cosnier had to give up work in 1611. In 1638, Guillaume Boutheroue and Jacques Guyon proposed to resume work, and receive from Louis XIII the letters patent with this intention. They created with other nobles "Compagnie des seigneurs du canal de Loyre en Seine". Work was completed the following year. Being a junction canal (between two different basins), it was not only necessary to build locks, but also to design a particular level, on the watershed. Indeed, for each passage of boat, one needed to use the locks displacing approximately 2000 cubic meters of water. Ponds were therefore dug. They include the ponds of Turfs, Chesnoy, Grand-rû, Tilery, Du Chateau, Cahauderie, Beaurois, the Bourdon reservoir, and the Moutiers reservoir on the Loing.

[edit] Modifications

The canal was repurchased by the State in 1860.

In 1894 and 1895, an elevatory factory was built in order to bring water to the canal, from the summit pond, to mitigate the insufficiencies of the ponds which fed the canal during periods of drought. To allow the passage of this canal the Canal Latéral à la Loire (built in the years 1820 and 1830), a tubular bridge was built on the Loire in Briare, of 1890 to 1896, by engineer Abel Mazoyer. The Tubular bridge of Briare is built on fourteen piles. On these piles is placed a single metal beam which supports a u-shaped basin which contains more than 13,000 tons of water (2.2 meters of depth). The width of the bridge, tow paths included, is 11.5 meters; and it is 662.7 meters in length. Eight valves make it possible to empty the tubular bridge in the event of severe freezing.