Travelling through the countryside around Berlin and following Theodor Fontanes footsteps in our own "Travels through the Mark Brandenburg", we found an impressive landmark, a marvellous piece of engineering on the river Havel one hour north-east of Berlin at the tiny hamlet of Nieder-Finow :
A "Schiffshebewerk" - or "boat lift": This is not the usual water lock but the ships pull into a special bassin and the whole thing, water, boats, ships and all, is lifted up, 36 m into the air, where the bassin is connected back to the canal, the ships leave the bassin and float on. This huge elaborate construction was built from 1927 to 1934 and has been working ever since.
The canal connects the eastern coal districts of Poland with the Baltic and the North Sea from the Oder to the Havel over to the Elbe river through the Oder-Havel-Canal.
On weekends tourist boats use the lift, but during weekdays, coal barges from the Polish coal district cue up here. This huge construction is not just historic and a tourist attraction; it seems to be economically viable. There is still a need for these lifts as you can see from the building site next to the lift: A new and bigger one is constructed right next to the old one, with a longer and higher bassin, that can take up the modern longer and higher container-carrying barges.
In real life the rising of the lift takes about five minutes.
A "Schiffshebewerk" - or "boat lift": This is not the usual water lock but the ships pull into a special bassin and the whole thing, water, boats, ships and all, is lifted up, 36 m into the air, where the bassin is connected back to the canal, the ships leave the bassin and float on. This huge elaborate construction was built from 1927 to 1934 and has been working ever since.
entering the lift
from below
waiting to rise - a vertical panorama
it stays dry beneath the bassin
a panoramic view of the Oder-Havel-Canal with the lift
.
...36 m up or down ...
On weekends tourist boats use the lift, but during weekdays, coal barges from the Polish coal district cue up here. This huge construction is not just historic and a tourist attraction; it seems to be economically viable. There is still a need for these lifts as you can see from the building site next to the lift: A new and bigger one is constructed right next to the old one, with a longer and higher bassin, that can take up the modern longer and higher container-carrying barges.
In real life the rising of the lift takes about five minutes.
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