As built, the canal was made up of four distinct sections: Developments for high-capacity navigation in the second half of the 20th century thoroughly transformed this Y-shaped system.

Napoleon was seeking to develop inland waterway connections throughout the country, and the Rhône-Rhine link was of such strategic importance that he gave his name to the project.

The Emperor’s administration conceived the predecessor of today’s public-private partnership model, selling existing canals to private companies, to provide funds for new links.

The new high-capacity Rhine-Rhône waterway would have made the canal obsolete, but the environment minister Dominique Voynet cancelled that project in 1997.

The Government then funded – as compensation – the backlog of maintenance works and other improvements, but with little impact on commercial traffic in 250-tonne péniches, which has all but disappeared.