The Elbe Lateral Canal, or the Elbe-Seitenkanal in German, is a 115 kilometres (71 mi) long canal in Lower Saxony, Germany. It runs from the Elbe near Lauenburg/Elbe to the Mittelland Canal near Gifhorn. It forms an important transport connection between southern and northern Germany, and it provides a bypass of a section of the Elbe with limited navigability. At the construction start it was also thought as a bypass outside the GDR, considered politically unreliable.
Construction of the Elbe Lateral Canal was started in 1968, and the canal was opened in June 1976. Due to a dam rupture, it was closed from July 1976 until June 1977. The difference in elevation between the Mitteland Canal and the Elbe is 61 metres (200 ft), which is achieved by a lock (23 metres (75 ft)) in Uelzen, and a boat lift (38 metres (125 ft)) in Scharnebeck. There are small ports along the canal in Lüneburg, Uelzen and Wittingen. At Wulfstorf (near Bienenbüttel) is a landing stage.
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“My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)