The Veckerhagen Ferry is a

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

across the

Weser River The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The ferry crosses between

Veckerhagen Reinhardshagen is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 24 kilometers north of Kassel, and 21 kilometers west of Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, cent ...

, in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, and

Hemeln Hemeln is an outlying village (''Ortsteil'') in the borough of the town of Hann. Münden. The village lies on the right bank of the Weser River, 12 km from the city proper. The highways L561 and L560 run through the community. The village's p ...

, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. The crossing is located some north of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. The ferry takes automotive, bicycle and foot passengers. Technically, the ferry is a

reaction ferry A reaction ferry is a cable ferry that uses the reaction of the current of a river against a fixed tether to propel the vessel across the water. Such ferries operate faster and more effectively in rivers with strong currents. Some reaction ferri ...

, which is propelled by the

current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

of the water. An overhead

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

is suspended from towers anchored on either bank of the river. The ferry is attached to this overhead cable by bridle cables and pulleys. To operate the ferry, it is angled into the current, causing the force of the current to move the ferry across the river.

References

Cable ferries in Germany Transport in Hesse {{LowerSaxony-geo-stub