Givors canal

Givors canal
Double lock on the Givors canal at Tartaras, just downstream from Rive-de-Gier, now a heritage site
Specifications
Length	20 km (12 mi)
Maximum boat length	22.5 metres (74 ft)
Maximum boat beam	4.65 metres (15.3 ft)
Minimum boat draft	1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in)
Minimum boat air draft	2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in)
Locks	42 (originally 26)
History
Former names	Canal de Givors
Original owner	François Zacharie and Guillaume Zacharie
Date approved	6 September 1761
Construction began	1763
Date of first use	December 1780
Date closed	c. 1900
Geography
Start point	La Grand-Croix
End point	Givors
Beginning coordinates	45°30′37″N 4°34′13″E / 45.510197°N 4.570202°E / 45.510197; 4.570202
Ending coordinates	45°35′24″N 4°46′30″E / 45.590115°N 4.775103°E / 45.590115; 4.775103Coordinates: 45°35′24″N 4°46′30″E / 45.590115°N 4.775103°E / 45.590115; 4.775103
Connects to	Rhone

The Givors canal (French: Canal de Givors) was built between 1761 and 1781 to carry coal, other goods and passengers from Rive-de-Gier to Givors on the Rhone, running beside the Gier river.

The canal was approved in 1760 and after many problems opened in 1780. The canal was originally 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) long. Goods were loaded on flat barges that could carry several tons. It took about 18 hours for two or three men to pull a barge through the canal. The Givors canal played an important role in the early industrialization of Givors and the Gier valley, and became highly profitable. At its peak, in 1827, the canal transported 332,000 tons.

The canal became obsolete when the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway, the first passenger railway in France, was built in 1828–33 along the same route. In an attempt to compete, in 1839 the canal was extended to 20 kilometres (12 mi) long, with 42 locks to raise or lower boats moving between the sections of level water. Despite the extension, traffic volumes slumped, although the canal was kept open until the start of the 20th century. Little now remains of the canal, which has mostly been covered by the A47 autoroute between Givors and Saint-Étienne.

The original plan conceived by Alléon de Valcourt in 1749 was to build a canal that would link the upper Loire to the Rhone. The route would run through the Gier basin from Givors on the Rhone most of the way to Saint-Étienne, then through the Saint-Étienne basin to Saint-Just on the Loire. It was sometimes called the Canal des Deux-Mers (Two-Seas Canal) since it would link the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

A more immediate need for a canal covering the section between Givors and Rive-de-Gier emerged in the 1750s, when a cheaper method than pack mules was needed to carry coal to heat houses in Lyon and to fuel the glass works that had been opened in Givors in 1749. In 1751, there were 1,200 mules engaged in carrying the coal from Rive-de-Gier to Givors, from where it was taken by water north to Lyon and south to the towns of the Midi. Lyon was consuming 36,000 tons annually. The coal sold for 5 francs a ton at the mine head and 21.70 francs per ton at the Lyon docks.