Navigational Locks
The diverse and fascinating geography of the European Continent has blessed it with magnificent and varied natural sights. Mountain ranges such as the Swiss Alps, the French Vosges, Germany’s Fichtelgebirge and Black Forest region have given birth to the great rivers of Europe which have provided most important transportation links since ancient times.
Before the advent of highways and road transportation, the rivers were the only efficient method of carrying goods from one place to another. Those most important trading centers located on a river soon grew into some of Europe’s most important cities—Budapest and Vienna on the Danube, Strasbourg and Cologne on the Rhine, Mainz and Frankfurt on the Main, Coblenz and Trier on the Moselle, to name but a few!
The challenge facing the early navigators was how to tame the rivers and make them navigable along their entire lengths. One of the answers was the invention and development of the lock.
Normally, water levels on each side of a navigation lock are different, so a lock has to work like an elevator. This is accomplished by using two sets of gates to enclose a chamber.
The lock starts with one set of gates open, and the water level in the chamber is the same as the water in the channel on that side. A vessel enters through the open gates.
Once the vessel is moored inside the lock chamber, the lock operator closes the lock gates behind the vessel.
With the vessel securely tied up and the gates closed, the lock operator can then open the valves at the opposite end of the lock. To adjust the water level in the lock chamber to match the water level of the waterway on the opposite end, water is allowed to enter into the chamber from the high-water side, or drained out of the chamber to the low-water side, thus raising or lowering the ship.
Once the water levels are equalized, the gates at that end are opened and the vessel can continue on its way.
The Main-Danube Canal
The Main-Danube Canal is an old dream of humanity. Charlemagne started the construction of its “Fossa Carolina” more than 12 centuries ago, and while his construction effort failed, parts of the canal are still visible in southern areas of central Franconia. King Ludwig I of Bavaria built the first fully functioning Main-Danube Canal in only 10 years of construction from 1836-1846. Yet, the Ludwig-Main-Danube Canal as it was called, with its 101 water locks was rather narrow and its practical use for shipping was highly limited. Its operation came to an end in 1945, partly due to damage from the war.
The planning of the present canal dates back to 1922. A project of this magnitude caused a lively debate over the environmental and economic consequences of its construction. Economic planners gravely overestimated its potential, while environmentalists largely underestimated the positive aspects of its construction for the biotope—and the fact that the canal actually provides 1,25 million cubic meters of water to the dry Northern Bavarian region every year.
It was not until September 1992 that the present-day Main-Danube Canal was opened for traffic. It stretches for a length of 106 miles from Bamberg, in Germany, via Nuremberg to Regensburg.
The canal reaches its apex 1,332 ft. above sea level. 16 water locks facilitate safe passage of vessels. 11 water locks were needed to overcome the ascent of 574 ft. between the Main in Bamberg and the apex and 5 additional locks facilitate descent from the apex. The canal is 180 ft. wide and 13 ft. deep. All traffic water locks are 40 ft. wide and 623 ft. long.
Thanks to the canal, it is now possible to navigate from the Rhine Delta at Rotterdam, Holland, to the Danube Delta at the Black Sea—a stretch of 2,200 miles.
|