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hamburg’s unique elevator tunnel

by deputydog ⋅ 03 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ post a comment


photo: flickr user thomas - click here for massive version

running under the river elbe in hamburg is a beautiful tunnel like no other. this 1/2 kilometre ‘technical marvel’, known as the ‘old river elbe tunnel’, was built in 1911, sits 24 metres below the river and connects central hamburg with the shipyard island of steinwerder. what makes the tunnel unique are the entry points on each side of the river: rather than just driving straight into the tunnel, vehicles enter a freight elevator which slowly descends to the tunnel below, the tunnel then taking traffic to a similar elevator on the opposite side which lifts them back to ground level.

[update] thanks to ‘tobi g’ for sending this elbe tunnel ticket.

the tunnel is still used to a lesser extent today by pedestrians, cyclists and cars but is now considered more a tourist attraction due to it’s quirky nature.

sources: 1, 2

discussion

32 comments for “hamburg’s unique elevator tunnel”

  1. Amazing! Never seen anything quite like it.

    posted by Anna | 3rd of February, 2008, 12:14 pm

  2. This is really a technical marvel! The large open elevators radiate a feeling of 19th century, of industrial revolution, of hard work. And for people living south of the Elbe river (like me) the tunnel is absolutely necessary to be able to reach the main north-western parts of the town by bicycle. And it’s almost impossible for SUVs to use it because it’s so narrow ;-)

    posted by max | 3rd of February, 2008, 1:34 pm

  3. it’s the elb tunnel. i walked a lot times through it…love it :)

    posted by Marcel | 3rd of February, 2008, 2:48 pm

  4. Hey I believe that was used for a scene in the Odessa file.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071935/

    posted by Randy | 3rd of February, 2008, 4:02 pm

  5. When I have friends visiting, I always try to find time to take them through this tunnel; if I don’t have time to go, I steer them in the right direction.
    Something to watch out for while walking through are the beautiful ceramic sculptures embedded in the tile - seashells, fish, various sea creatures.

    Nice shots - I like the panorama one.

    posted by ian in hamburg | 3rd of February, 2008, 7:34 pm

  6. wow. that’s cool … it actually looks like you can walk around down there. good for photography! :)

    nice find DD. thanks for sharing.

    david smeaton
    http://www.davidsmeaton.com

    posted by David Smeaton | 3rd of February, 2008, 9:54 pm

  7. It’s really beautyful, maybe I make a trip in order to visit it.

    http://www.juzamdjinn.blogspot.com

    posted by duhu | 4th of February, 2008, 12:56 am

  8. @David Smeaton:
    Of course you can :)
    You can drive, walk or cycle through the tunnel.

    greetings from hamburg, jan ;)

    posted by jan | 4th of February, 2008, 1:19 am

  9. i forgot something:
    take a look at http://flickr.com/search/?q=alter+elbtunnel&m=text

    posted by jan | 4th of February, 2008, 1:21 am

  10. thanks for the posts of my Video of your site its nice.

    posted by Tobi | 4th of February, 2008, 5:39 am

  11. I visited the tunnel in 2005. Very nice tunnel and amazing that it has been in operation for so long.

    posted by Ali | 4th of February, 2008, 8:49 am

  12. Wasn’t it in the Warren Beatty movie “Dollar$”?

    Thanks for posting this; this is great. Along with the elevated monorail that goes through Wuppertal, and the various few remaining paternoster elevators… these are all cool things I’d like to check out in my next visit to Germany…

    posted by Richard Huffman | 4th of February, 2008, 9:34 am

  13. apparently, they used this site to set the record for the longest miniature railway train. was a couple of meters long and went around the whole oval.

    posted by seb | 4th of February, 2008, 9:58 am

  14. ive been in hamburg the last 4 years in a row and never knew this existed. must check it out when im back in july

    posted by aidan | 4th of February, 2008, 10:30 am

  15. Looks like the perfect place to set a video game. beautiful!

    posted by feckineejit | 4th of February, 2008, 10:32 am

  16. It is amazing how immaculate the tunnel is for being built in 1911. Very neat.

    posted by Bill | 4th of February, 2008, 1:06 pm

  17. not really unique; glasgow had one of these until a couple of years ago, its now been turned into restaurents

    posted by JH | 5th of February, 2008, 11:04 am

  18. jh: so glasgow no longer has one huh? surely that would make this one unique?

    posted by deputydog | 5th of February, 2008, 11:10 am

  19. They mentioned this post and site on Sky news but they wrote the wrong address http://www.deputy.dog.com instead

    posted by raz | 6th of February, 2008, 1:22 pm

  20. raz: are you kidding? as in sky news on tv? deputy.dog.com? bastards.

    i was wondering why ‘deputy.dog’ was at the top of the search terms for people coming to the site today.

    posted by deputydog | 6th of February, 2008, 2:25 pm

  21. Yeah it was on SKY NEWS right before i put the post. All i could find is http://skynews.typepad.com/

    Ctrl F Tunnel –> it will find the link, they fixed it, but it was wrong on the tv broadcast.

    posted by Raz | 7th of February, 2008, 1:28 pm

  22. That tunnel is pretty cool. European architecture and innovation always impresses me. One day, I’ll make my way over there!

    posted by cool poster man | 10th of February, 2008, 12:52 am

  23. 1911 you said.It really deserves a lot if it is built in 1911.Such beautiful bit of engineering.Awesome.

    posted by Saim Baig | 14th of February, 2008, 1:24 pm

  24. You might be interested in this panorama by Willy Kaemena:
    http://homepage.mac.com/wkaemena/FS/Hamburg/ElbtunnelAufzug/

    posted by Gary O'Brien | 24th of February, 2008, 2:43 pm

  25. There is also the greenwich tunnel in london, which would appear to be smaller (no cars) but has fantastic ‘olde worlde’ elevators in it.

    It is sad that it’s a bit dilapidated now.

    See wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_foot_tunnel

    posted by M | 28th of February, 2008, 2:20 pm


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