Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven, a seaport town of Germany, in the free state of Bremen, on the right bank and estuary of the Weser, at the confluence of the Geeste, 38 m. N. of the city of Bremen by rail. Pop. (1895) 18,366; (1905) 24,159. It is built on a tract of territory ceded to Bremen by Hanover in 1826, and further increased by treaty with Prussia in 1869. It forms practically a single town with Geestemünde (Prussia), which lies across the Geeste and with which it is connected by a drawbridge. The port was opened in 1830, and besides an excellent harbour, there are three large wet docks, including the Kaiserhafen, enlarged in 1897-1899 at a cost of £900,000. This, together with the north portion of the Neuerhafen, constitutes the free harbour. Here are the workshops and dry docks of the North German Lloyd steamship company. The whole internal harbour system is furnished with powerful hydraulic cranes and lines of railway running alongside the quays. The entrance to the port is free from ice nearly all the year round, is excellently buoyed, and lighted by two lightships and eight lighthouses, among the latter the remarkable Rothesand Leuchtturm, erected 1884-1885. The Hanoverian fort and batteries, which formerly protected the town, have been removed, and their place is supplied by four modern forts, with revolving turtleback turrets, lower down. The town possesses two Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, a technical institute, a natural history museum, a library, a theatre, a monument to the emperor William I. and one to Johann Smidt (1773-1859), the burgomaster of Bremen to whose enterprise the harbour of Bremerhaven is due. Shipbuilding and kindred industries are carried on.