HOW LONG IS THE DANUBE RIVER?

Famous in history and song is the “beautiful blue Danube River”

that drains nearly one tenth of the whole of Europe. Stretching 1,776 miles from the German Black

Forest all the way to the Black Sea, the Danube ranks second only to the Volga among rivers of Europe.

The Danube River basin covers 315,000 square miles and includes southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and part of Czechoslavakia.

The waterway is formed by two small mountain streams which join in the Black Forest near Schwenningen. The river then runs east and south.

The Danube has been deepened by canals and channels to make it the chief water route for the commerce of central Europe. A canal makes it possible for boats to travel through the iron Gate, a gorge with rapids where the Danube breaks through the Transylvanian Alps at the border of Romania and Yugoslavia.

At Ulm in Bavaria, the Danube is connected to the Rhine River by the Ludwigs Canal.

Large cities located on the banks of the Danube River include Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade.