January 10, 1975
In West Germany (now part of the Federal Republic of Germany), a vehicular tunnel crossing under the Elbe River in the city of Hamburg was officially opened. Construction on the New Elbe Tunnel — also called Elbtunnel — had begun in 1968. Helmut Schmidt (1918-2015), who served as chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982, presided at the inauguration of this tunnel. (Old Elbe Tunnel [also known as St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel] is likewise located in Hamburg; this vehicle and pedestrian tunnel dates back to 1911.)
The 1.9-mile (3.1-kilometer)-long, eight-lane New Elbe Tunnel, which is a segment of Bundesautobahn 7 (Federal Motorway 7), serves as a major connection between the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. This tunnel encompasses a total of four bores.
Photo Credit: Malene Thyssen (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
For more information on the New Elbe Tunnel (Elbtunnel), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbe_Tunnel_(1975)
Transportation History 