TheLudwig Canal (German:Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal orLudwigskanal), is an abandonedcanal inSouthern Germany.[1]
The canal linked theDanube River atKelheim with theMain River atBamberg, connecting theDanube basin with theRhine basin. The first realisation of a dream to enable barges to navigate from theNorth Sea to theBlack Sea, the Ludwig Canal proved to be unsustainable, and was eventually succeeded by a larger canal, over a century later.[2][3]
Named afterKing Ludwig I of Bavaria, the canal was built between 1836 and 1846. Whereas the Main and the Danube were both broad canalised rivers, the Ludwig Canal was a narrow channel, with numerouslocks, and a shortage of water supply to thesummit level. The canal became a bottleneck, and the operation of the waterway soon became uneconomic. A further nail in the canal's coffin was competition from the rapidly developingrailway network in the southern German countryside.[4] Rather than repair the damage suffered duringWorld War II, (the canal being close to the bombed city ofNuremberg), the canal was finally abandoned in 1950.
Construction of the Ludwig Canal's replacement, the much largerRhine–Main–Danube Canal, was started in 1921, but not completed until 1992. The new canal is shorter and follows a route to the south and west of the earlier canal.[5]
Today, there still exists betweenNuremberg andBerching some 60 km (37 mi) of canal in good condition. Some of the locks still function, and part of the towpath has been converted to a cycle track.[6] The old canal comes close to the new canal atPollanten, and from there the two canals flow downstream in parallel, eventually meeting 5 km south ofBerching.
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