Donauinsel

This guide to Donauinsel in Vienna traces the 1954 flood that nearly broke the city and engineer August Zottl's answer: dig a second Danube channel and pile the excavated earth into an entirely new strip of land, thirty million cubic meters of soil moved over sixteen years. You'll hear about the fight before the island opened, when students marched down the Ringstrasse to keep the land public rather than handed to factories and private clubs. Listen for the New Danube running alongside you, the relief channel that gave the island its shape.