barricade

Polish barricade during the Warsaw Uprising

Revolutionary barricades during the May Uprising in Dresden

Painting of a barricade on Rue Soufflot (with the Panthéon behind), Paris, June 1848. By Horace Vernet.

Hydraulic barricade defends Wall Street

A barricade is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes any improvised field fortification, most notably on the city streets during urban warfare.

Barricades also include temporary traffic barricades designed with the goal of dissuading passage into a protected or hazardous area or large slabs of cement whose goal is to actively prevent forcible passage by a vehicle. Stripes on barricades and panel devices slope downward in the direction traffic must travel.^[1][2]

There are also pedestrian barricades - sometimes called bike rack barricades for their resemblance to a now obsolete form of bicycle stand, or police barriers. They originated in France approximately 50 years ago and are now produced around the world. They were first produced in the U.S. 40 years ago by Friedrichs Mfg^[3] for New Orleans's Mardi Gras parades.

Finally anti-vehicle barriers and blast barrier are sturdy barricades that can respectively counter vehicle and bomb attacks.^[4][5] As of recent, movable blast barriers have been designed by NTU^{[clarification needed]} that can be used to protect humanitarian relief workers, and villagers and their homes in unsafe areas.^[6]

In history

Barricades featured heavily in the various European revolutions of the late 18th to early 20th centuries.

The very first barricades in the streets of Paris, a feature of the French Revolution and urban rebellions ever since, went up on the Day of the Barricades, 12 May 1588, when an organized rebellion of Parisians forced Henri III from Paris, leaving it in the hands of the Catholic League. Wagons, timbers and hogsheads (barriques) were chained together to impede the movements of Swiss Guards and other forces loyal to the king.

During the Parisian insurrection of June 1832, barricades were used. In Les Misérables, the building and defending of a barricade during this time was famously described. Barricades were also used at the end of the Paris Commune of 1871 and in May 1968 in France. A major aim of Haussmann's renovation of Paris under Napoléon III was to eliminate the potential of citizens to build barricades by widening streets into avenues too wide for barricades to block. Such terms as "go to the barricades" or "standing at the barricades" are used in various languages, especially in rousing songs of various radical movements, as metaphors for starting and participating in a revolution or civil war, even when no physical barricades are used.

Making an early appearance in a Royal Shakespeare Company production, the barricade is used in Les Misérables as a symbol of the whole, through its immense, almost frightening size and ultimately the site of all the highs in Les Misérables.^[7]

Gallery

Earthen barricade during the Warsaw Uprising	Among the materials frequently used for barricade construction are sandbags, pavement slabs and large vehicles	Streetcar as part of a barricade	Improvised barricade made of train engines
Pavement slabs barricade and a trench behind it during the Warsaw Uprising	Improvised barricade built with vehicles	A barricade in Warsaw protecting civilians from enemy fire when crossing a street	Barricades as street and highway traffic control devices

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barricades

• Visi-Flash Barricade Lights
• Jersey barrier
• Separation barrier

References

Look up barricade in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barricade.