Rhine

I

Introduction

Rhine (German Rhein; French Rhin; Dutch Rijn; ancient Rhenus), one of the principal rivers of Europe. Rising in eastern Switzerland, the Rhine flows 1,320 km (820 mi) in a generally northwestern direction through or adjoining Austria, Liechtenstein, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, to its mouth on the North Sea. It is formed high in the Swiss Alps by the Vorderrhein and the Hinterrhein, which join near the town of Chur. The Rhine drains an area of 220,000 sq km (85,000 sq mi). Its major tributaries are the Aare (Aar), Neckar, Main, Lahn, Ill, Mosel, Ruhr, and Lippe. Because of the huge volume of freight and number of passengers carried on it, the Rhine is one of the most important commercial inland waterways in the world. The river has greatly influenced the history, culture, and economy of Europe from Roman days to the present.

II

Course of the Rhine

The Rhine begins as a tumultuous Alpine stream churning through deep gorges, and because it is fed by the meltwaters of snow and glaciers, it has a maximum volume in spring and summer. Although the river's flow is moderated somewhat as it passes through the Bodensee (Lake of Constance), the river remains a torrent westward to Basel, Switzerland. Near the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen it is 185 m (600 ft) wide and plunges 23 m (75 ft) over a spectacular waterfall, the Rheinfall.

At Basel the river turns north and enters the Rhine Graben, a flat-floored rift valley lying between the Vosges on the west and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) on the east. Strasbourg, France, a focal point for merging water routes from the Paris Basin, is located at the valley's northern extremity.

With the junction of the Main River at Mainz, in Germany, the Rhine's seasonal regime becomes more stabilized. Along its course from Bingen to Bonn, the river has cut the deep, steepsided Rhine Gorge through the Rhineland Plateau. This picturesque gorge, with terraced vineyards and castle-lined cliffs, has often been called the “heroic Rhine,” renowned in history and romantic literature. Near the town of Sankt Goar is the Lorelei, the great face of rock that inspired the famous lyric Die Lorelei (1823) by the German poet Heinrich Heine. Here the Rhine is 150 m (480 ft) wide and 23 m (75 ft) deep.

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Downstream from Bonn, the river crosses Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) state. Leading cities on the stream's banks are Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Duisburg. Along the Ruhr River, a small right-bank tributary of the Rhine, is one of the world's greatest concentrations of industrial activity (see Ruhr).

At the Netherlands frontier, the Rhine is 655 m (2,150 ft) wide. From this point it divides into two parallel distributaries, the Lek and the Waal, as it crosses a wide, marshy plain and a great delta as it heads toward the North Sea. These two main channels were closed off by the Delta Project, completed in 1986, which built sluices and alternate channels for the river's runoff. The main link from the Rhine to the North Sea is the New Waterway, which established Rotterdam as the leading port in continental Europe when it was constructed in 1872. Much of this delta area is at or below sea level, but diking has enabled it to become one of the most densely populated and important economic regions on the continent.

III

Navigation and Commerce

The Rhine is navigable from its mouth to Basel, a distance of 800 km (500 mi). The principal rivers of Western Europe, including the Seine, Elbe, Ems, Rhône, and Saône, are linked to it by canals. In 1992 an important canal link to the Danube River was completed, through the Main River, which opened up shipping between the North Sea and Black Sea. The Rhine drains an area noted for its mineral, industrial, and agricultural wealth, and has been open to international navigation since 1868 by terms of the Mannheim Convention.

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