Elbbrücken

The Elbbrücken (Elbe Bridges) are the cluster of road and rail bridges that carry everything arriving from the south into Hamburg. They have been one of the city's great bottlenecks since the 19th century and remain a striking piece of engineering: steel arches leaping across the Norderelbe, the northern arm of the river, at the eastern edge of the HafenCity. What makes the spot worth a detour is the transit station named after them. The U-Bahn platform on line U4 opened in 2018 and the S-Bahn platform followed in 2019, together forming a glass structure with a sweeping curved roof and a fully glazed walkway linking the two. From inside that walkway you look out over the river, the old bridges and the still-growing HafenCity skyline, which makes it one of the most photogenic transit stations in Germany and costs nothing beyond a standard transit fare. Around the bridges, the Quartier Elbbrücken is going up as the newest piece of the HafenCity, a cluster of towers set right on the water. Getting there: U4 or S-Bahn (S3 or S31) to Elbbrücken. From the station you can walk back along the quays through the HafenCity all the way to the Elbphilharmonie, an easy and consistently scenic route.