Elbtunnel

Hamburg, Germany, is located at the river Elbe which splits the city into two parts: the city itself with the residential zones in the North and the docklands / industrial zone in the South. When tourists today want to see musicals in the harbour they cross the river by boat. But what about the workers that needed to cross the river twice a day? For them, the St.-Pauli-Elbtunnel or Alter Elbtunnel (to distinguish it from the motorway tunnel opened in 1975) was opened in 1911: a tunnel under river Elbe that can be passed on foot as well as with cars.

The tunnel is 426 meters long and has two lanes for pedestrians and one for cars (or by that time carriages) in the middle, which had to be used alternating. You can enter the tunnel by an ancient building next to the Landungsbrücken. For vehicles, there was always an elevator on both sides – pedestrians had to take stairs, later an escalator was installed. Today you can get up and down by elevator. Using the Elbtunnel as a pedestrian is free of charge and possible around the clock. The beautiful scenery down there was used multiple times in TV series and films like Absolute Giganten.

St.-Pauli-Elbtunnel / Alter Elbtunnel
St. Pauli 1
20359 Hamburg
Germany