The Barmbek branch canal is a canal in the Hamburg districts of Barmbek-Nord and Winterhude.
It is 900 meters long and usually 30 meters wide.
Only in the southern third is it 22 meters wide.
The canal connects the Osterbek Canal with the Goldbek Canal near the Hamburger Stadtpark.
Like the other canals around the Alster, it was built in connection with the construction of the Hamburg elevated railway ring.
The canal branches off from the Osterbek Canal in a northerly direction.
After 290 meters it passes under the branch canal bridge over which the Wiesendamm leads, after which the canal widens.
After a further 150 meters comes the bridge of the ring line (underground line 3) of the Hamburg underground between the underground stations Barmbek and Saarlandstrasse, after another 230 meters the Hellbrookstrasse bridge (until 1960 Hellbrookbrücke) for Hellbrookstrasse, where the canal from Barmbek-Nord changes to Winterhude.
Finally, the canal ends at the Goldbek Canal, which connects at a right angle from the west.
The canal was built between 1910 and 1915 and thus marks the high point of the waterside development of the districts of Barmbek and Winterhude.
It was used to transport the coal to the Hamburger Hochbahn power station and as a cooling water connection for this power station.
The canal runs along the premises of the Hamburg U-Bahn main workshop and the former Hamburg-Barmbek goods station.
In the 1930s, a loading point for coal was set up at the goods yard so that the gasworks on the Osterbek Canal could be supplied with coal brought in by the railway. After the development of the freight yard, the canal now runs along residential buildings, just like in the section Osterbekkanal–Stichkanalbrücke.
North of the subway bridge there is a green strip on the western bank, all other bank areas border on areas that are used commercially or for workshops.
(Source: Wikipedia)