Canal Saint Martin

The Canal Saint-Martin is defined by its series of nine locks and distinctive wrought-iron footbridges that cross the water at intervals. Commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in eighteen oh two, the four-and-a-half-kilometer canal was built to solve a public health crisis by bringing clean water from the Ourcq River into a city struggling with cholera and dysentery. Funding for the massive construction project, which finally opened in eighteen twenty-five, came from a new tax on wine.