Belfort Gap

The Belfort Gap is a plate located between the northern end of the chain of the the Jura and the southernmost part of the massive of the Vosges. Its altitude varies between 345 m of altitude, at the point low and a little more than 400 meters to the watershed between the catchment area of the the Rhine and that of the the Rhone. This line served in 1871 to determine the new border between the German Empire and France: a series of fortifications was set up to ensure defense of it.

Belfort Gap, natural space, corresponds roughly to the department of the Territoire of Belfort, space administrative.

Perforated allows the junction between the south of the Alsace and the north of the Franche-Comté. This broad corridor is borrowed by very varied communication networks:

highway network (RN 83) and highway (has 36);
railway Paris-Basle and future LGV the Rhine-Rhone;
Channel of the Rhone in the Rhine.

Two important ways crossed the area as of the Roman epoch, which made it possible César to quickly convey the troops which were going to beat Arioviste and to make pass by again the Rhine with these German (primarily of the Suèves) become a little too much invading.

The town of Belfort, placed well in its medium, played during centuries a part of bolt against the invasions coming from the West (for the Austrian period) or from the East (when the area became French after the Guerre Thirty Year old). It remained a node of communication impossible to circumvent.

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