The Canal de Marseille au Rhône connects the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

to the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

. The section between

Marignane Marignane (; oc, Marinhana) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. Geography It is a component of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, and the largest suburb of the cit ...

and

has been closed since the collapse of the

Rove Tunnel The Rove Tunnel ( French: ''Tunnel du Rove'') is a currently out-of-use canal tunnel in Southern France that connected the 16th arrondissement of Marseille to the Étang de Berre in the Bouches-du-Rhône department from 1927 to 1963. It allowed for ...

in 1963.

Description

The canal has a total length of from Marseille to Arles. The canal consists of the Rove Tunnel from the harbor on the Mediterranean, the section leading to the

Étang de Berre The Étang de Berre (in Provençal Occitan: ''estanh de Bèrra / mar de Bèrra'' according to classical orthography, ''estang de Berro / mar de Berro'' according to Mistralian orthography) is a brackish water lagoon on the Mediterranean coast of ...

, the Bouc à Martigues canal (or Caronte canal), the Rhône à Fos canal and the Saint-Louis canal. There are two channels at Martigues, the Gallifet canal and the Baussengue canal, used only for recreational boats.

Martigues Martigues ( in classical norm, ''Lou Martegue'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte. A dir ...

island, between the two canals, is divided by the small canal of Saint-Sébastien, which runs along its length. The complex of waterways at Martigues has led to its being called the "Venice of Provence".

History

The possibility of building a canal with a tunnel through the chaîne de l'Estaque to the northwest of Marseille had been discussed for many years. A proposal was developed for the Marseille Chamber of Commerce in 1879 by the engineer Guérard, but no action was taken until an act of 24 December 1903 authorized the project. The initial plan was for an wide tunnel, which would only allow one-way traffic at any time, but this was later increased to for two-way traffic despite the increase in cost. Preparatory work began in 1906. On 7 May 1916

Marcel Sembat Marcel Sembat (, 19 October 1862 – 5 September 1922) was a French Socialist politician. He served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 1893 to 1922, and as Minister of Public Works from August 26, 1914, to December 12, 1916. B ...

, Minister of Public Works, and

Joseph Thierry Joseph Marie Philippe Thierry (2 March 1857 – 22 September 1918) was a French lawyer and politician. He was deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône from 1898 to 1918. He was Minister of Public Works in 1913 and Minister of Finance in 1917. As Minister of F ...

, Under-secretary of State for War, inaugurated the Rove Tunnel and the first two cranes of

Port-de-Bouc Port-de-Bouc (; oc, Lo Pòrt de Boc) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The following is a list of the 119 communes of the Bouches-du- ...

. After many delays, the full canal was finally opened to traffic in April 1927. It was closed in 1963 after a section of the tunnel collapsed. File:Projet d’un canal de navigation du Rhône à Marseille 1895.png, 1895 plan File:Tunnel-du-Rove72.JPG, Southern portal of the

File:Pont sur canal à Marignane-90.JPG, Railway bridge at Marignane File:140603-Martigues-01.jpg,

File:Canal à la Mède-68.JPG, Pont du Jaï at la Palunette

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Canal de Marseille au Rhone

Canals opened in 1927