Europe, until about two hundred years ago (before the industrial revolution), was covered in forests. These forests have always made control and transportation difficult. The Romans broke through roads to the main points here and there, but they used to take advantage of the waterways to penetrate deeper into the continent. When they set up their camps, they usually chose a confluence of rivers, which would protect them from at least two directions and at the same time allow them a line to supply their needs. This is how it happened that, over time, a civilian population accumulated around those camps (families, merchants, and various professions serving the Romans and those living around them). This accumulation of population, in time, became cities.
The waterways of Alsace as a source of life
Since Europe, as we know it today, began its development even before the Industrial Revolution, rivers and then canals became the safest and most important routes, mainly for transporting goods in large quantities. This is in contrast to the USA, whose development is due to the railway after the Industrial Revolution. Thus, all European cities are located on waterways – rivers, canals, lakes and seas.
Since this happened, Europe was covered in a dense, branching network of canals, connecting almost every city, town, and lake.
This was especially the case in Western Europe. Castles were built in key locations to control, monitor, and collect taxes from those traveling on those waterways. Traffic on the waterways was problematic, especially upstream, and even more so when it was necessary to reach a place beyond a waterfall, or above a nearby elevation, such as a connection to a lake, that was higher than the waterway. To this end, at first, the loaded ships were pulled up the rivers with the help of people harnessed to boats and/or animals such as mules and oxen. Then, the ingeniously simple invention was invented – the “floating chambers” to raise ships up the steps of canals or rivers, thus overcoming the differences in elevation up the waterways.
Strasbourg and its bridges
The Vikings, who invaded and raided deep into the continent, did so with the help of their special boat structure (flat, allowing them to enter rivers, unlike seagoing ships, which need a deep cut for stability, where the stability weights are placed at the bottom of this cut) and the possibility of propelling them with sails as well as oars. But that is a story for another post. Louis XIV engaged in wars, like hunting, for entertainment and as a pastime. For the purposes of his war entertainment, he ordered the fortification of many cities FranceOne of them was Strasbourg, whose fortification was entrusted to a particularly astute engineer. Strasbourg's main weak point was the access to it by the river Ile. The sophisticated engineer not only built a series of bridges to cross the fords of this river as it entered the city, but also built dams at the keystones of their arches. So that in times of danger these dams were closed and not only was there no entry to the city via the river, but the areas in front of the city were flooded and no army could approach the city through these flooded areas. And if that were not enough - giant cannons were placed at the height of a ship's stern, to sink any ship that came across these killing grounds.
I photographed the buoys in the various rivers and canals. I photographed the series of bridges with all their dams that have protected the city since then, from this direction of attack and the gun emplacements opposite them (in close proximity and in line of sight from our jet). I photographed this in Ayl and Brian. I also photographed the wonderful and romantic canals that cross the ColmerRegarding the Rhine, I must mention a phenomenon that you will have to interpret for yourself - the Rhine, as we know, forms the border between France and Germany. Where we crossed the Rhine to board a ship for a short tour on the Rhine, we noticed a phenomenon that was hard to ignore. On the French side, crowds of swans gathered (I photographed Tami walking among them) and on the German side, black clouds of crows made a noise...
A little about the author
Nimrod Negev (His original name is Norbert Felstein) He was born in Paris. He grew up there, did his military service here… At the beginning of his career he worked in civil engineering, later he studied geography (later he taught the subject in high schools and colleges). He also studied archaeology and worked in the field for about 15 years, 13 of them as a district archaeologist. To see more pictures from this post, you are invited Go to the following link.