[Escape Game] Step 4 – The canal bridge

Arghhh… .that’s very annoying! The Répudre, a very capricious little river, is right on the way of the canal!

I would have several solutions …

1. Dig a tunnel and pass under the Répudre
2. Invent a sort of bridge that would pass over the Répudre … a canal bridge in such a way
3. Divert this river from its bed … it is so small that it doesn’t have to be very complicated

Let’s go and see on the spot …. by the right bank of the canal we get there quickly

So… if I take the canal bridge solution… it will be a first in the world! We will continue to talk about it for centuries and centuries … and we will not forget me! HeHe …

If you look closely, you would have to build an aqueduct or “bridge” 135m long and 25m wide; the vault under which the stream passes would be 15.60m by 16.50m and would be 3.90 above the water.

On a base of 2.30 m solid and shoulders of 1.95m, the canal width will remain at 16.50m wide and the depth at 2.30m.

Nothing here would be appearance, piers, vaults and shoulders will be built of very hard freestone and very cleanly pitted.

Well… well it seems to hold up, after all!! I will entrust its construction to the architect Emmanuel de l’Estang, who will have to complete it by 1676.

… For the record, the canal bridge was practically finished when a violent flood damaged it in the winter of 1676 and it had to be partially rebuilt !!! The 200 workers present on this work had a hard time completing it on time.