Briare aqueduct

The Briare Aqueduct carries the Canal latéral à la Loire over the Loire on its journey to the Seine in France. It does not, as is commonly believed, form part of the canal de Briare.

The Briare aqueduct near Châtillon-sur-Loire was, for a long time, the longest steel canal aqueduct in the world. The aqueduct is 662m long and lost its title of longest aqueduct to that at Magdeburg which crosses the Elbe and is 918m long. The aqueduct was designed by the engineers Léonce-Abel Mazoyer and Charles Sigault. The masonry abutments and piers were completed between 1890 and 1896 by Gustave Eiffel and the steel channel was completed by Daydé & Pillé of Creil. The aqueduct was inaugurated on 16 September, 1896 with the crossing of the boat Aristide, belonging to Ernest Guingamp. It allowed the development of transport to the Freycinet gauge between the Loire and Seine, and is a registered historic monument in France.

The channel is entirely metal bordered with a tow path and a line of standard lamps on either side. Each end is marked by two ornamental columns in imitation of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. The channel is 6 metres wide and 2.2m deep allowing boats with a 1.8m draught to cross. The channel is steel, the rest of the structure is masonry.

References

Further Reading

• Hadfield, Charles World Canals. First, David & Charles.

External links

• The French article from which this article was translated
• Coeur-de-france.com, in French
• Construction of the Briare Canal and the aqueduct, in French
• Le canal Latéral à la Loire, in French

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 06:31:05 PDT (GMT -0700)
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