{"id":59337,"date":"2025-04-19T23:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T21:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59337"},"modified":"2025-05-05T23:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T21:00:12","slug":"the-bridge-to-nowhere-on-an-islet-in-the-commune-of-billy-berclau-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/19\/the-bridge-to-nowhere-on-an-islet-in-the-commune-of-billy-berclau-france\/","title":{"rendered":"The bridge to nowhere on an islet in the commune of Billy-Berclau, France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bridges are very important engineering works that have served to span rivers and geographical features for millennia.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/09\/norddalsbrua-a-bridge-that-resisted-being-blown-up-during-world-war-ii\/\">Norddalsbrua, a bridge that resisted being blown up during World War II<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/05\/31\/the-tunnel-and-the-bridge-of-cerro-salomon-some-formidable-ruins-of-the-riotinto-railroad\/\">The tunnel and the bridge of Cerro Salom\u00f3n: some formidable ruins of the Riotinto Railroad<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>in the north of France, in the commune of Billy-Berclau, there is a port that seems absolutely useless<\/strong>. It is a beautiful tensioned arch bridge located on a small islet, <strong>l'\u00celot aux Saules<\/strong>, which is in the middle of the Canal d'Aire, a section of the Dunkerque-Escaut Canal between the Neufoss\u00e9 and De\u00fble canals. <strong>The bridge is on the western part of the islet and leads nowhere.<\/strong> Six years ago, the YouTube channel Canna-jo showed it in this video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y3qW46p7IAs?si=SCqzglnfAtC5r4xD\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As we see in the video, <strong>on the southern part of the island is the Bauvin Bridge, which connects Berclau with Les Baraques<\/strong> and serves the few homes located on the islet. The rest of this small island is a landscaped park that is now used for walking. Today, the channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@lostintimeNL\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LostintimeNL<\/a> <strong>has published a video traveling across the bridge to nowhere on the western side of the island<\/strong>. As we can see, its northern end abruptly ends in some fences, to the right of which there is a pedestrian access:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Abandoned bridge (Un pont pour rien) France Jan 2025 (urbex lost place verlaten brug Frankrijk)\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aEJ02z0SDu0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the purpose of this bridge and why is it there?<\/strong> It appears to be wide enough to allow a vehicle to pass. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velo-ravel.net\/Themes\/Ecluses.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The website velo-ravel.net says the following about this bridge<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>A bridge lost in the middle of an island, it was abandoned when the Aire Canal was widened.<\/strong> Bridge located on the islet of Haute-De\u00fble or Willow Island.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ile.aux.saules.free.fr\/about.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">An old French website<\/a> explains that <strong>the situation of this bridge is due to works to widen the Canal d'Aire in the early 1970s:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Initially, the Canal d'Aire from Dunkirk and the Canal du De\u00fble, connecting Douai to Lille, were perpendicular; the radius of curvature was very small and did not allow the passage of 3,000-ton barges. The construction of a diversion then became essential. <strong>The triangular shape of the island was determined by creating a symmetrical diversion<\/strong> and filling in the central axis, leaving the bridge that once crossed the Canal d'Aire on land. <strong>This architectural vestige of the \"bowstring\" type, commonly called the broken bridge, now offers a fabulous observation point.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Judging from the video by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@lostintimeNL\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LostintimeNL<\/a>, <strong>the bridge barely needs any maintenance<\/strong>. The southern section is overgrown, and the bridge's columns are covered in graffiti. You can see some screenshots from that video here. <strong>This is the southern section of the bridge, overgrown.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54462904970_96f63fee96_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The northern section of the bridge ends like this.<\/strong> The video shows the view from the top of that fence. The northern section of the bridge was demolished when the Canal d'Aire was forked.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54462739639_5336c11126_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The bridge seen from its western side.<\/strong> Surely before the works completed in the early 1970s, the canal passed under the bridge.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54462739649_ec1d4e3ac4_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bridges are very important engineering works that have served to span rivers and geographical features for millennia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19535,16880],"tags":[24279,24281,10575,24280],"class_list":["post-59337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploring-portada-eng","category-infrastructures","tag-billy-berclau","tag-canal-daire","tag-france","tag-lilot-aux-saules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}