The Kiel Canal

1 - The Kiel Canal begins at the town of Brunsbüttel on the North Sea and ends at Kiel on the Baltic Sea. It is 98.26 km long. The canal allows large seagoing ships to travel between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea without taking the detour around Jutland. This saves them around 460 kilometres. 2 - This waterway was inaugurated by German Emperor Wilhelm II on 21 June 1895, after eight years of construction. It was then named the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal". 3 - The name was intended to commemorate Kaiser Wilhelm I, who had promoted the construction of the canal together with the then Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. They wanted German warships stationed in Kiel to be able to reach the North Sea without having to "run past Danish cannons". 4 - Originally, the canal was 67 m wide and 9 m deep. All the bridges were 42 m above the water so that the imperial warships could pass beneath them. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widened to 102 m and deepened to 11 m. In the western section, the canal is now 162 m wide. There are also twelve passing places, called passing bays. Large cargo ships can pass each other here.5 - Since 1948, it has been called the "Kiel Canal". Today it is the busiest artificial waterway in the world. Around 35,000 ships pass through the canal each year. These often include cruise ships and so-called feeder ships: small container ships that transfer their cargo to larger ships in the North Sea ports. 6 - A passage takes about 7–9 hours. Locks at both ends of the canal prevent seawater from entering the channel. 7 - A total of 10 bridges cross the Kiel Canal, carrying 4 railway lines and 8 roads. There are several ferries that carry vehicles and people across the canal. At Rendsburg, a road tunnel and a pedestrian tunnel pass underneath the canal. 10 - The railway bridge at Rendsburg is particularly well known. A suspended ferry runs beneath it. It can carry 60 pedestrians and 4 cars, and has been running every 15 minutes for over 100 years. All the ferries have been free to use since the time of Kaiser Wilhelm.