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Origin and history

The Givors Canal, originally called the " canal of the two seas", was designed to connect the Loire to the Rhône via the Gier. It was 20 km (15.5 km) long until Rive-de-Gier + 5 km to La Grand-Croix, with 42 locks, 5 water bridges and a 171 m tunnel ("the pierced Rock"). Its gauge allowed the passage of 22.5 m boats, with a total elevation of 85 m. Intended to compete with land transport, it was also used to transport coal to local industries such as Robichon glassware.

The construction, launched in 1763 by the Lyon entrepreneur François Zacharie, was built over 17 years. Zacharias died in 1768, leaving his son Guillaume a colossal debt. The work resumed in 1771 under the direction of the hydraulician Guillaume Marie Delorme, with the financial support of the Company of Interests of the Givors Canal (created in 1774). Despite an incident during the inauguration (bank break in 1776), the canal was completed in 1780, thanks to the intervention of Jacques Necker, who doubled the tariffs and extended the concession to 99 years.

Exploited intensively (3,000 boats/year, 140 000 tons of traffic), the canal earned 11 million francs of dividends. However, competition from the rail industry in the 1830s (Saint-Étienne-Lyon line) and the exhaustion of its profitability led to its takeover by the state in 1886. Extended to La Grand-Croix in 1839 to serve the coal mines, it was filled in the 1960s when the A47 motorway was built, almost completely erasing its remains.

Among the outstanding infrastructure, the Couzon Dam (1788) compensated for water shortages in the Gier River. The headquarters of the Company, completed in 1796 in Rive-de-Gier, became the city hall. Today, only a few sections remain, in particular in the meanderings too pronounced for motorway work. The canal illustrates the early ambition to mesh the French waterways before being supplanted by modern transport.

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