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Photo: Hamburg HPA port authority.

Hamburg plans Europe’s tallest lighthouse

Published: 4 Dec 12 07:47 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20121204-46547.html

The northern city of Hamburg is planning to build the tallest lighthouse in Europe, with a tower nearly 100 metres tall for its busy harbour.

Regional NDR radio reported this week that the city’s port authority wanted to start work on the black and white tower as early as next year.

The lighthouse, expected to cost some €10 million, is necessary to protect ship traffic around a new container terminal along the Bubendey-Ufer coast.

At 99.20 metres, the tower would be 16 metres higher than Europe’s current tallest lighthouse which is on France’s Atlantic coast. A second, lower tower in Hamburg would reach 75 metres.

“The lower light will be easy to see atop stilts in the water. The top light will be somewhat hidden behind the container cranes,” Frank Rühr, an engineer for the port authority, told NDR.

The Local/mry

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

08:38 December 4, 2012 by lucksi
Couldn't you install two lights in one tower instead of building two?
09:57 December 4, 2012 by twisted
10 million Euros to start...but if this will be like other projects in Hamburg, it will rise by a million per meter.
12:20 December 4, 2012 by beeker
Are lighthouses still necessary in "light" of GPS, SatNav, ELORAN and inertial guidence computers?
18:34 December 4, 2012 by mobiusro
Haven't you see it in the movies? When aliens will invade they will destroy all our satellites. How will the ships be able to avoid Hamburg otherwise?
18:54 December 4, 2012 by JWS
Yes, lights are still needed. Humans are still an important part of the system.
14:48 December 5, 2012 by Onlythetruth
Maybe Hamburg should finish their hugely expensive and superfluous Elb Philharmonie first? After paying the huge cost overruns on that little ornament one wonders whether Hamburgers will be able to afford a pot to pi$$ in never mind europe's tallest lighthouse.
23:20 December 5, 2012 by Mark S.
No, you can't build two lights on the tower. It's called a "Range Light" in the US and "Leading Light" in the UK.

Draw a line from the tall tower to the short tower and out into the water. A ship that is on that line sees both lights directly above each other. You would see the lower light offset to one side or the other if you are not directly on the line.

You normally place a range light so that ships entering/leaving the harbor follow the line. The crew can tell if they are in the right place just by looking out the window.

Lights are still a useful navigation tool. You can drive a ship by only looking at a GPS, just like you can drive a car by looking only at a GPS. If you are in the middle of a large flat area with no other cars nearby, you'll probably be ok. Otherwise, you better look out the window.
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