The river Garonne has shaped the history of Bordeaux since the city was founded. It has been a significant avenue of commerce that enabled local merchants to become very wealthy, trading in luxury colonial goods. But for the Bordelais, the river was also a severe obstacle since they could only cross it by boat. In the early nineteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered Claude Deschamps, engineer of bridges and roads, to build a stone bridge to allow the French army to send troops to Spain during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). Deschamps thought a wooden bridge would be cheaper and easier to build but eventually used stone. However, the strong river current and financial difficulties delayed the project until 1822.