St. Pauli Piers

This guide to the St. Pauli Piers in Hamburg starts with a puzzle: how a floating harbor built to ride a tide that swings the Elbe by three and a half meters can feel so solid underfoot. It traces the mooring problem that stumped Hamburg's first coal steamers in 1839, and the engineering firm Raabe and Wöhlecke's answer between 1907 and 1909, ten pontoons tied to shore by bridges that tilt with the water. You'll also hear about the Pegelturm, the stone tower with a green dome that has tracked the river's level for over a century, and the years Hamburg spent rebuilding the piers after wartime destruction. Watch the bridges at the turn of the tide to feel the whole structure shift.