Along these roughly 40 miles of the Rhine, you can find over 40 breathtakingly romantic hill top castles, though many of them are in ruins now. The area is very rich in history, and its beauty has inspired many artists.
The Rhine River is very important in linking the northern and southern halves of Europe, and many people use it for transport. Over time, many settlements began appearing along the sides of the Rhine, so that people could easily use the river to get things where they needed to go. The Rhineland has historically been a huge center for the shipping industry, since it is very easy for large shipments to be sent up and down the river. Many industrial towns and cities have sprung up along the Rhine as a result of this. Today, the Rhine is important to the Germany tourism industry as well.
Since the Rhineland is an industrial region, pollution is can be an issue for the people and wildlife that live along the Rhine. In 1986, a fire at a chemical warehouse in Switzerland released about 30 tons of pesticides into the river, which turned the whole river red and killed hundreds of thousands of fish, as well as nearly destroying the population of European eel living in the Rhine. Since then, more safety standards have been enforced which have helped keep the water much cleaner, but there are still many kinds of toxic substances that have been found in the river.
