Pierre Paul Riquet, French (1609-1680), contractor fees, touring around France to do his job he realizes there is a point where the watershed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean has only 160 vertical meters .
France at that time to bring goods from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean was to take his boat to circumnavigate Spain. When Spain and France had diplomatic problems, however, these ships were struggling to pass.
Riquet are plans to build a system of canals that cross the Mediterranean from the Atlantic to France can find rivers that feed it. Once she
projects goes to Colbert, who approves them. Riquet but they must build at his own expense. In return he received all the profits for the toll. Opened a shipyard for the construction of 12 thousand workers. Unfortunately, he died six months before the completion of his great work: the Canal du Midi, the canal linking the Mediterranean to Toulouse.
The Canal du Midi viaducts extraordinary given the time of construction: Whether a height, in a tunnel closed. It was designed by Vauban, the greatest engineer of the time.
The advantages of the Canal du Midi in relation to circumnavigation Spain were impressive:
· Save time
· no problem diplomatically,
· no damage caused by bad weather
· no action piracy.
Disadvantages:
· were built 35 feet long closed, the ships were at the time of 25. After a few decades, however, the vessels will be much longer. Riquet
· The family began to earn after 90 years in 1979 after the Revolution became the channel state, and no longer private. The family has gained only about fifteen years.
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