Bremerhaven, Germany

Bremerhaven sits at the mouth of the Weser where it meets the North Sea, holding roughly 114,000 residents within the state once governed by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which founded the port in 1827. Between 1830 and 1974 some 7 million emigrants left Europe through this harbor, a movement recorded at the German Emigration Center that opened in 2005. The 1893 Lloyd wharf produced ocean liners including the SS Europa, while the 2000 Climate House traces the 8° East longitude line through successive climate zones. The zoo am Meer, opened in 1911, remains the only zoological garden in Germany built directly on the North Sea dyke.