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 about 1,320 km (820 mi) in a generally north-western 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 rivers, which join near the town of Chur. The Rhine drains an area of about 220,150 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 times 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 usually reaches its maximum volume in spring and summer. Although the river's flow is moderated somewhat as it passes through Lake Constance (Bodensee), the river remains a torrent westwards to Basel. Near Schaffhausen it is about 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 St Goar is the Lorelei, the great face of rock that inspired the famous lyric Die Lorelei by the German poet Heinrich Heine. Here the Rhine is about 146 m (480 ft) wide and 23 m (75 ft) deep. A 65-km (40-mi) stretch of the Rhine Valley in this area was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.

Downstream from Bonn, the river crosses the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, which has a population of about 17 million and accounts for one-third of the country's industrial production. Leading cities on this stretch of the river are Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Duisburg. Along the Ruhr River, a small east-bank tributary of the Rhine, is one of the world's greatest concentrations of industrial activity.

At the Netherlands frontier, the Rhine is about 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 before entering 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 area is at or below sea level, but dyking contributed to its becoming one of the most densely populated and important economic regions in Europe. However, the river is becoming increasingly prone to flooding, and in January 1995 some 250,000 people had to be evacuated in the Netherlands when it threatened to overwhelm dykes downstream from Nijmegen. Rotterdam, still the leading port of continental Europe, is located near the river's mouth and handles mainly trans-shipments from ocean and river craft.

III.

Navigation and Commerce

The Rhine is navigable from its mouth to Rheinfeld, on the Swiss-German border, a distance of more than 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, the Rhine-Main-Danube canal, a project that had been discussed for centuries, was finally completed, making possible commercial water transport between the North Sea and the 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. Modern technology now permits 24-hr navigation and transport of heavier loads on the river of coal, iron ore, grain, potash, petroleum, iron and steel, timber, and other commodities.

IV.

Environmental Damage

This industrial and commercial wealth has also caused problems, however. In 1976, because of severe pollution, the Dutch, French, Luxembourg, Swiss, and West German governments signed a treaty aimed at cleaning up the river. Despite problems of compliance, the Rhine was gradually improving. Then, in 1986, a massive chemical spill reversed ten years of progress. Nearly 30 tons of toxic waste, including fungicides and mercury, entered the Rhine. The spill, called the greatest non-nuclear disaster in Europe in a decade, killed 500,000 fish and forced the closing of water systems in West Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

In the mid-1990s record-setting floods swamped the Rhine region twice in the space of 13 months. Officials and scientists speculated that the flooding may have been partially a result of human factors such as deforestation, the straightening of the Rhine for commercial purposes, and the greenhouse effect.