page_title: List of bridges in Hamburg
section_title: Bridges in the Elbe river system
hierarchical_section_title: List of bridges in Hamburg / Bridges in the Elbe river system
caption_attribution_description: Height: 335 mm (13.18 in); Width: 595 mm (23.42 in) dimensions QS:P2048,335U174789;P2049,595U174789
context_page_description: This list of bridges in Hamburg has no claim to be complete, but rather just give an overview of their history and scope. For this article, the bridges are listed by Hamburg's three major rivers and the respectively crossed body of water. The Elbe is by far the largest of the three. Unlike Alster and Bille, the Elbe is also within the North Sea's tidal influence, and Elbe bridges differ substantially from the ones on Alster and Bille. All three rivers are fed by a number of smaller rivers and also feature a number of branches or sidearms.
  Hamburg has the most bridges of any city in Europe. Besides the Hanseatic city's mercantile and maritime history, the many rivers, canals and bridges constitute to Hamburg's association as the "Venice of the North". A 2004 report by the Department for Roads, Bridges and Waterways states a total number of 2,496 bridges in Hamburg, many more than cities like Venice, Amsterdam or Saint Petersburg. Given the city's waterborne geography and the port's heavy duty requirements, bridges in Hamburg also cover a great variety of architectural styles and innovative structural systems.
context_section_description: Up until the 19th century, the Unterelbe had no fixed crossing. Travel time between Hamburg and Harburg took over two hours, and included two ferry trips across the Norder- and Süderelbe and a weary trip across the dikes of Wilhelmsburg. During Napoleon's brief annexion of Hamburg, a 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) long pile bridge was built across the islands of Wilhelmsburg, however it also required cable ferries across the Elbe's two anabranches. In 1817 the poorly maintained structure was washed away.
  By the 1840s, with industrialization rapidly growing and trade through the Port of Hamburg skyrocketing, the need for a fixed crossing became apparent. At the time, the German states were a loose confederation of sovereign states, with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg only controlling the northern Elbe shore, while the town of Harburg and the southern Elbe shore were part of the Kingdom of Hanover. Both sides built their railway lines: Hamburg–Bergedorf railway in 1842 (extended to Berlin in 1846), and Celle–Harburg railway in 1847 (connected to Hanover since 1845) – but no link across the Elbe. One of the biggest obstacles was Hanover's rivalry to Hamburg and her attempts to promote overseas trade through the Port of Harburg.
  Twenty years on, the missing link became a void in the European rail network. Progress was finally possible after Prussia's annexation of Hanover in 1866; within a few years the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) completed the Venlo–Hamburg railway as North German section of a Paris–Hamburg railway line, and thereby linking Hamburg with the industrial centers of the Rhineland and the Low Countries. The first railway bridges across Norder- and Süderelbe were built between 1869 and 1872, nowadays part of the Elbbrücken. Also starting in 1866, the port's infrastructure was substantially re-organized, in order to cope with the increased quantity of processed goods and to meet requirements of then commonly employed steam-powered vessels. This included an expansion of the port onto the islands of Steinwerder, Veddel and Wilhelmsburg, and set-up of an extensive rail network for the newly established Hamburg port railway (Hafenbahn). In 1887, the Neue Elbbrücke with its three lenticular trusses (each 102 meters long) became a Hamburg landmark and the first road bridge to cross the Norderelbe, serving many of the port's businesses. By 1899, the Alte Harburger Elbbrücke provided a road link across the Süderelbe.
   
  New bridges across the Elbe anabranches and the Elbe islands' canals were and are continued to be built to this day. Over the years, some of them have set new standards or records in engineering. With the Elbe bridges being perceived as a symbol of the many changes associated with the Industrial Age, they were continuously subject to artistic and intellectual reception, among others by artists of the Hamburg Secession (Sezession) during the interwar period, or latest by the Internationale Bauausstellung during the 2000s. In 2015, the Speicherstadt was acknowledged as a World Heritage Site.
caption: Elbe Bridge I from the series Hamburg Bridges (1932) by Rolf Nesch
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