MEUSE, mez, or min, river which rises in France in the south of the department Haute Marne, and with a northward trend crosses the northwestern corner of the department Vosges where between Bazielles and Noncourt it has a subterranean course of three and a half miles. It traverses the departments Meuse and Ar dennes, and on reaching Sedan enters Belgium. At Namur where it receives on the left its largest tributary, the Sambre, almost doubling its volume, it changes its course to northeast, and passes Liege, where it is augmented by the Ourthe; it separates Dutch from Belgian Lim burg, passing Maestricht and Roermond, at the latter of which it receives the Roer. In the northern part of Dutch Limburg its course is changed to northwest, and subsequently it be comes west. The whole of its after-course is through the Netherlands, in which it forms for some distance the boundary between North Brabant and Gelderland. It finally joins the left bank of the Waal, one of the arms of the Rhine, and gives its name to the accumulated flood of these streams, which, proceeding west through Holland proper, is divided near Dordrecht into two great rivers, the one of which bends round to the north and reaches Rotterdam; the other branch continues west; shortly after the two branches again unite and discharge themselves into the North Sea. The direct length of the
Meuse is 230 miles; and its length including windings is 580 miles. It is navigable for about 460 miles. A section of the Meuse River was selected by the French government before 1875 as the location for a chain of protective forts, which became known as the Meuse line. These forts extend for 31 miles from Verdun to Toul, being disposed along the eastern banks of the river. The names of the forts are Verdun, Saint Mihiel, Genicourt, Troyon, Lionville, Saint Agnant, Gironville, Jous sous les Cote and Tours. There was also constructed a second line of forts from Pagny to Neufchateau. This region saw some of the heaviest fighting of the Great World War. See WAR, EUROPEAN.