This majestic 140m water fountain travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

Its predecessor dated from 1886, when the new hydraulic turbines on the Rhone built up excessive water pressure after the city’s craftsmen had closed the valves in their workshops and gone home. An engineer created a temporary outlet which spurted a 30m fountain to release the pressure while a reservoir system was developed, but by the time the fountain became unnecessary a few wily Genevois had caught on to its power as a tourist attraction. Then purely decorative, it was moved from the river to an exposed lakeside location, and furnished with more and more powerful pumps. It’s a big fountain that shoots straight out of the lake… it was built for a world fair there. You can see it from all around the lake, and they shine lights on it at night. The lake is beautiful to watch a sunset on, and the Swiss Alps surround it. Also, there is a statue of a “naked man and a horse”. Eight 9,000-watt projectors light the fountain’s majestic column in the evening as it soars skywards.
In 1930, the city of Geneva installed the Jet d’eau (Water Fountain) where it is today, on the Rade, together with electric lighting. Originally a simple security valve at the Coulouvreniere hydraulic factory, the massive Jet d’Eau fountain has, over the years, grown to become a symbol of Geneva. Geneva’s Jet d’Eau has been breaking the calm of this peaceful city for over a hundred years.To project half a cubic meter of water per second up to 140 meters high requires two powerful groups of motor pumps representing a global weight of over 16 tons and a total power of close to 1000 kilowatts, fed by an electric tension of 2400 volts. The water is drawn in a circular water-sump and is directed towards an exit pipe where the speed reaches 200 km/h (130 miles per hour). Still, the generically named Jet d’eau (“water jet”) isn’t your common garden-variety sprinkler. Electric pumps totalling some 1,300 hp keep an estimated seven tons of water in the air, and the jet is nearly three times the height of the Statue of Liberty.

It is only when approaching the Jet d’Eau on the Rade that you really experience the mixture of indescribable power and invigorating spray, and can appreciate the surrounding sites, the harmony of the quays, the old town on the hills and St Peter’s Cathedral. But don’t take the mild spray for granted – as soon as the wind changes direction, sprays turn into showers and more than one visitor has come back from the Rade completely soaked…