Having a canal in downtown Budapest? Ambitious, rather bold idea. With the unification of Buda, Pest, Óbuda, and Margitsziget (Margaret Island) in 1873, Ferenc Reitter - constructer of several landmarks of our capital -, thought that this can be the answer to solve Budapest's growing traffic issues. Traveling throughout eastern and western Europe he got encouraged by the city plans of Venice and St. Petersburg.
He realized that a certain part of Pest was on a lower level, in an ancient riverbed of a no longer existing arm of the Danube and it would be an obvious choice to lead the water back in. He wanted to develop shipping not only by letting the vessels enter the city center, but also by creating a smooth way for them to dock along Nyugati Railway Station. He imagined 12 bridges on the canal and rows of magnificent inner city palaces on its two banks.
But the dream was too big to realize since there was a major factor which prevented the constructions. That above mentioned arm was used as a drainage channel for a long while in the past and unfortunately became the potential cause of several epidemics, including cholera outbreaks, too. The leadership decided to put an end to the issue and bury the tributary stream right after the 1838 Great Pest Flood.
Not to put the public health to risk in the future again, the idea was dropped, but he continued his work: he desgined the Andrássy Avenue, the Danube quays and eventuall the canal of his dreams became the reality of the Nagykörút (Grand Boulevard) the most important vain of Budapest's traffic. Along countless cars, tram no. 4 and 6 serve the public on this road today. They take over 200,000 people each day running 24 hours a day. If you ask Hungarians, they'll say that these are the buisest trams in the whole world!
