Rhine–Main–Danube Canal

The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal is a German waterway connecting the Rhine and Danube river basins. It completes a navigable route between the North Sea and the Black Sea.

Lock (water transport): A lock is an enclosed chamber that raises or lowers vessels between stretches of water at different levels. Locks lift and lower vessels along the canal’s changing elevation.
Fossa Carolina: Fossa Carolina was a short canal built under Charlemagne in the late eighth century to connect the Altmühl and Swabian Rezat valleys. It was an early attempt to connect the Rhine and Danube river systems.
Rhine–Main–Danube waterway: The Rhine–Main–Danube waterway is the navigable route linking the North Sea and Black Sea through rivers and canals. The canal forms the route’s essential artificial link between river basins.
North Sea–Black Sea route: The North Sea–Black Sea route is an inland navigation corridor crossing Europe through connected rivers and canals. Opening the canal made this continuous navigable corridor possible.
European watershed: A European watershed is a drainage divide separating river basins across Europe. The canal crosses the divide between the Rhine and Danube drainage systems.
Ludwig Canal: The Ludwig Canal was a nineteenth-century waterway connecting the Main and Danube rivers in Bavaria. It was the canal’s nineteenth-century predecessor on the same broad route.
Inland waterway transport: Inland waterway transport moves passengers or freight by navigable rivers, canals, and lakes. Freight carriage is a central use of the canal.
European inland waterway network: The European inland waterway network is the connected system of navigable rivers and canals across Europe. The canal links two major branches of this continental transport network.
Main–Danube Canal summit tunnel: A tunnel beneath the canal’s summit level carries vessels through the Franconian Jura. It is a distinctive engineering feature on the canal’s highest section.
Ludwig I of Bavaria: Ludwig I was king of Bavaria from 1825 to 1848 and supported major public works. His reign saw the construction of the Ludwig Canal between the Main and Danube.

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