Havre, Le
[key], city, Seine-Maritime dept., N France, in Normandy, at the mouth of
the Seine River on the English Channel. It was founded in 1517 as Le
Havre-de-Grâce by Francis I. Le Havre became a major seaport in the
19th cent. and is now the second-most-important port in France after
Marseilles. It was a major port for transatlantic travel until the advent of
widespread commercial air travel in the 1970s. Among the city's industries
are oil refining and the manufacture of automobiles, cement, synthetic
rubber, and fertilizers. During World War II the British bombed the city to
prevent its use by the Germans for an invasion of England.
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