Elbe Crossing 1 is a group of masts providing an overhead crossing of a 220 kV three-phase alternating current

Alternating current

In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....

 electric powerline across the River Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

. Constructed between 1959 and 1962 as part of the line from Stade

Stade

Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...

 to Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 north, it consists of four masts:

• Each of the two portal masts is a guyed mast 50 metres in height with a crossbeam at a height of 33 metres. One of these masts stands on the Schleswig-Holstein
  Schleswig-Holstein
  Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
  
   bank of the Elbe and the other on the Lower Saxony
  Lower Saxony
  Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
  
   bank.
• Two identical carrying masts 189 metres in height, each weighing 330 tons, ensure the necessary passage height of 75 metres over the Elbe. One stands on the island of Lühesand
  Lühesand
  Lühesand is a small island 1.24 kilometres square in the river Elbe, 8 kilometres east of Stade in Lower Saxony, Germany. The island can only reached by ferry and contains a large camping site, on which many continuous campers stay. The southern carrying pylons of Elbe Crossing 1 and Elbe Crossing...
  
  , the other in the Buhnenfeld on the Schleswig-Holstein side.

Because of the swampy terrain, each mast's foundation is built on pilings driven into the ground. The Lühesand portal mast rests on 41 pilings and the one on the Buhnenfeld on 57. In contrast to the usual construction of such lattice steel pylons, the direction of the line passes diagonally over the square ground cross section of the pylon, resulting in savings in material. The two crossbeams for the admission of the six conductor cables are at a height of 166 metres and 179 metres. The mast on the Buhnenfeld bears at a height of 30 metres a radar facility belonging to the Water and Navigation Office of the Port of Hamburg

Hamburg Harbour

-External links:* * Port of Hamburg: Facts, figures, and outlook* * Currently under construction in the HafenCity* *...

. Each portal mast has stairs and gangways for maintenance of flight safety beacons, and has a hoist for heavy loads.

Elbe Crossing 1 was supplemented in the 1970s by Elbe Crossing 2

Elbe crossing 2

Elbe Crossing 2 is a group of pylons providing overhead lines for four 380 kV three-phase alternating current circuits across the German river Elbe...

.

External links

• http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b60895
• http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b58846
• http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b58850
• http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b60897
• Google Maps: Pylon on Lühesand Island
• Google Maps: Pylon on the shore of Schleswig-Holstein