Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow

 

Back in Toronto, I remember being super impressed with a boat tour of the Peterborough Lift Lock. So when I learned that the Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow (Germany's oldest and biggest lift lock) is not far from Berlin, I knew I had to go see it. It didn't disappoint!

It's sort of hard to capture the engineering beauty of these types of structures, but it really was impressive. A smaller lock was originally built on this site in 1914, but was quickly deemed too small for traffic demands on the canal. In 1934 it was replaced by the big, imposing structure that still stands today. It works a bit differently from the one in Peterborough - it had two basins which served as natural counterweights while Niederfinow has one basin and external counterweights - but the principal is the same. The lift stands at 60 meters tall and the journey up and down takes about five minutes. Be sure to check back later this week for an up close look at the lock, until then you can see more old stuff at Rubbish Tuesday.

Confidential to my brother: Happy Birthday!!!

25 comments:

  1. Very impressive!

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  2. The engineering on that is something I would love to have alook at

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  3. Great construction. I know that there are in belgium the same kind of elevators just run away from a sci-fi book but I haven't seen them myself.

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  4. Very impressive and your photograph is excellent!

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  5. Must be awesome to see in action.

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  6. Halcyon you are a great explorer. You really discover a lot of interesting things to post. This is one of many.

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  7. It is an impressive structure! Nice view, too!

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  8. WOW, this is massive! Tom The Backroads Traveller

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  9. trying to imagine how it operates. :)

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    1. It's like an elevator for boats. The boats drive (or whatever boats do) in and the basin closes. A series of counterweights is set in motion to bring the basin up or down. The one near Toronto had two basins - one at the top and one at the bottom. The basins served as counterweights so one would come up while the other came down.

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  10. Visited you lovely part of the world years ago and found many interesting sights. Never saw this one tho.

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  11. I had to got look at a YouTube video to see how this works. I grew up in a city on the Mississippi River and we had a lock and dam in our city. An evenings entertainment would be to got down and watch the barges go through the dam. It appears to work the same as this but, it looks completely different.

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  12. Super interesting link Hal and what an impressive structure, so different from the much smaller canal locks I saw in France, will check back and see your detailed shots.

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  13. Any chance to see it 'at work'?

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  14. This is incredible! Can't wait to see it up close!

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  15. Very cool. I didn't know there was a liftlock so close to Berlin.

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  16. It looks huge compared to Peterborough's! It is like magic to watch them working!

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  17. I have always been fascinated by lift locks, but have never seen one in person!

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  18. Lift locks are such great constructions and this one seems to be very impressive. Have you ever visited Beelitz close to Potsdam? ( nothing to do with locks but highly interesting)

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  19. Wow, that 's amazing - so different to the small locks on our canals.

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  20. I can see why you were impressed!

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  21. Big and very impressive! Sometimes engineering feats like this are really mind-boggling to those of us whose minds tend to the more ordinary.

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