Binger hole

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Binger Loch 2011. The fairway is on the left. On the right, separated by the parallel work, is the Mäuseturminsel on the second fairway. The perforated stones can be seen to the left of the parallel work.

The Binger Loch is a bottleneck at the southern end of the Rhine - breakthrough valley through the Rhenish Slate Mountains and represented a significant obstacle to shipping in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley until the 19th century . It is located at Rhine kilometers 530.8, on the right bank, a few meters downstream of the Binger Mouse Tower and Ehrenfels Castle .

At this point the current was crossing a transverse flow of quartzite - reef . The passage of this reef was dangerous and not at all possible for all cargo ships. The place only became generally passable for shipping after the first success in the 17th century to blast a gap in the rock barrier - the Binger Loch.

Today three rocks remain in the stream from the reef, the perforated stones .

Current conditions on the Middle Rhine

Marking bucket in the Binger Loch with a strong current
Perforated bricks
A passenger ship passes the perforated stones (left behind) upstream.
Old and new fairway just above the Binger Loch
Monument to the widening of 1832

The reef formed a natural weir that dammed the Rhine above and compensated for the differences in gradient.

The slope of the Rhine below the Binger Loch is considerably greater than above. As far as Rüdesheim, the Rhine drops about 10 centimeters per kilometer of the river; below the Binger Loch the gradient rises to up to 65 centimeters per kilometer. At mean water , the water level is directly above the perforated stones at 77.4  m above sea level. NN specified; three kilometers downstream, directly in front of the gravel bank of the Klemensgrund, the mean water only reaches a level of 75.4  m above sea level. NN . When the tide was low, the water level immediately below the Binger Loch was 80 centimeters lower than above.

The width of the stream also changes significantly. In the Upper Rheingau, the left and right banks of the Rhine are up to 1000 meters apart, leaving room for large islands in the river. Down the Rhine, the river bed narrows significantly, down to about 160 meters at the narrowest point under the Loreley rock .

This affects the flow velocity. Above the Binger Loch, the current at mean water corresponds roughly to the speed of a walker on the bank, while below the current becomes so strong that the marker barrels at the edge of the fairway generate spraying bow waves.

Making navigable

Although the Romans had tried to break through the Binger Reef, it was not until the 17th century that, at the instigation of Frankfurt merchants, it was possible to create a four-meter-wide passage.

Thereupon the runoff of the Rhine increased significantly, the mean water level above the reef sank. This led to the moated castles in the Rheingau silting up . Of the former 32 islands, only six are left today. Three islands were washed away, the rest silted up. Furthermore, the water table below the cathedral sank in Mainz , which exposed the 20,000 oak piles on which the mighty structure rested to rot. From 1909 to 1928 they were replaced by a deeper stone foundation to secure the structure.

The Prussian blasts from 1830 to 1841 significantly improved the situation for shipping by widening the Binger Loch to 14 meters. When a width of nine meters was reached, a monument was erected from the rubble stones on the Bingerbrücker side .

In 1860 the construction of a second fairway on the left bank of the Rhine began and a 90 meter wide opening was blasted into the quartzite reef . The new fairway was separated from the main stream in 1867 by a 1 km long parallel works . Between 1925 and 1932 the width of this opening was reduced to 60 meters. Seven basic weirs were installed in order to achieve the required water depth.

In 1893–94 the Binger Loch was widened to 30 meters and in 1966–74 it was expanded to today's 120 meters. Ludwig und Jakob Götz KG was involved in the expansion project. Before this expansion, the Binger Loch was only navigable upstream, the valley traffic used the "new fairway". After the last measure in the 1990s and the newly built tail unit, the Binger Loch is no longer a major obstacle; the left fairway has been closed.

monument

The monument erected in 1832 in the district of Weiler bei Bingen for the widening of the Binger Loch bears the inscription:

At this point on the Rhine, a rocky reef narrowed the passage. It was perishable for many ships. Under the government of Friedrich Wilhelm III. King of Prussia , after three years of work, the passage is 210 feet , ten times the previous one. This monument is erected on blasted rock. 1832.

literature

Web links

Commons : Binger Hole  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hanspeter Rings: Neckarschiffahrt: Illustrated history of Ludwig and Jakob Götz KG. With the memories of Friedrich Götz . 1st edition. Edition Quadrat, Mannheim 1990, ISBN 3-923003-49-8 , pp. 126-127 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 28.2 ″  N , 7 ° 52 ′ 21 ″  E