Danube

Second longest of European rivers, rising on the eastern slopes of the Black Forest, and flowing 2,858 km/1,776 mi across Europe to enter the Black Sea in Romania by a swampy delta.

The head of river navigation is Ulm, in Baden-Württemberg; Braila, Romania, is the limit for ocean-going ships. Cities on the Danube include Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade, Ruse, Braila, and Galati. A canal connects the Danube with the River Main, and thus with the Rhine river system. In 1992 the river was diverted in Slovakia to feed the controversial Gabcikovo Dam.

In February 2000, the Danube was hit by a cyanide spillage from a Romanian gold-mine in what threatened to be the worst ecological disaster in Europe since the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Hungarian and Serbian officials embarked upon a massive clean-up operation as the cyanide approached the Danube from a tributary in Romania, travelled down river, wiping out plant and animal life, and was spreading south towards the Black Sea.