River mouth Rhine Length 113 km Basin area 827 km² Mouth Rhine | Basin size 827 km (319 sq mi) Discharge 17 m³/s Source Sauerland Country Germany | |
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Main source Sauerland
441 m (1,447 ft) Bridges Müngsten Bridge, Kohlfurther bridge | ||
The Wupper is a right tributary of the River Rhine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Rising near Marienheide in western Sauerland it runs through the mountainous region of the Bergisches Land in Berg County and enters the Rhine at Leverkusen, south of Düsseldorf. Its upper course is called the Wipper.
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Map of Wupper, Germany
On its course of about 113 km, the Wupper passes through the city of Wuppertal where the suspension railway runs for 10 kilometres above the river. According to a popular local story, on 21 July 1950 a young elephant named Tuffi jumped into the Wupper from the railway.
It is crossed by the highest railway bridge in Germany near Müngsten, between Remscheid and Solingen. A few kilometers further down, Burg Castle is located on a hill overlooking the river.
Hydropower
From the 15th century, the Wupper and its numerous streams gave birth to hundreds of workshops, mills and factories on their banks. Originally water was used for dying, bleaching and washing canvas and cloth, later it was used to power machines or transport waste.
The Wupper thus facilitated the early industrial expansion of Wuppertal (German for "Wupper Valley") during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. The Wupper Valley was one of world's first industrialized regions and empowered inter alia the Ruhrgebiet as a coal-mining region.