A clever captain manages to ship goods in each direction. At this point tugs can push a floating train of up to five barges at once. Upstream it gets steeper and they can push only one at a time. From 1873 to 1900 they actually laid a chain from Bonn to Bingen and boats with cog-wheels and steam engines cranked themselves slowly upstream. While riverside navigational aids are ignored by camera-toting tourists, they are of vital interest to captains who don't wish to meet the Loreley.
Boats pass on the right unless they clearly signal otherwise with a large blue sign.
Cameras monitor traffic all along and relay warnings of on-coming ships via large triangular signals posted before narrow and troublesome bends in the river. But in 1797 the French Revolutionary army destroyed it. Reinfels was huge, the biggest on the Rhine, then used as a quarry. DM to help follow the guided tour below. From the ticket gate walk straight and uphill.