When you picture a city of bridges, you probably imagine gondolas gliding under the arches of Venice, or bicycles rattling over Amsterdam's canals. Those cities are famous for good reason. But neither one holds the title.
The city with the most bridges is Hamburg, in northern Germany. Its rivers, streams, and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges. That's more than London, Amsterdam, and Venice put together, and it's more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world.
A City Built on Water
Hamburg owes its bridges to its geography. It sits where the Alster and Bille rivers meet the Elbe, and it's the starting point of the Elbe estuary, which runs about 68 miles toward the North Sea. Water winds through the city in rivers, streams, and canals, and every one of those waterways needs crossing.
Water has also made Hamburg rich. Its port is the largest in Germany and the third-largest in Europe, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. Some of its bridges are major roadways, like the Köhlbrandbrücke and the Kennedybrücke, which separates the two parts of the city's Alster lakes.
Counting Every Crossing
The number isn't just a rough boast. A 2004 report by Hamburg's department for roads, bridges, and waterways counted 2,496 bridges in the city. They come in every size and style, from busy road bridges to elevated railway bridges to hundreds of footbridges, many of them tucked inside public parks.
Because of its port, Hamburg also needed bridges strong enough for heavy industry, so the city's crossings cover a huge variety of designs. The Köhlbrand Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge that opened in 1974, carries traffic over a branch of the Elbe in the harbor area. All those waterways have even earned Hamburg the nickname Venice of the North.
Warehouses on Oak Logs
One of the best places to see Hamburg's waterways is the Speicherstadt, or City of Warehouses. Built between 1883 and 1927, it's the largest warehouse district in the world whose buildings stand on timber pile foundations. In this case, those piles are oak logs.
The district and the neighboring Kontorhausviertel, an area of grand office buildings, were named UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015. Canals run between the tall brick warehouses, crossed by bridge after bridge.
How the Others Compare
Venice is built on 126 islands separated by open water and canals. Parts of the city are linked by 472 bridges. That's plenty, but it's only a fraction of Hamburg's total.
Here in the United States, Pittsburgh is sometimes called the City of Bridges for its 446 bridges, thanks to the rivers that meet there. It's an impressive number for an American city, but Hamburg still has several times as many.
More Than Just Bridges
Hamburg is Germany's second-largest city after Berlin, with more than 1.9 million people. It's also one of the country's three city-states, alongside Berlin and Bremen.
The city has another record too. It's home to five of the world's 29 tallest churches, giving it more churches over 330 feet tall than any other city. And music fans may know Hamburg as a city that helped pave the way for the Beatles.
So the next time someone mentions the city of bridges, you can smile and share a little secret. Venice may have the gondolas, but Hamburg has the numbers, and plenty of charm to go with them.
