The so calles crane-houses ("Kranhaueser") in Cologne were build in 2008. Each one of the 17 story buildings is about 62m high, 70m long and 33m wide. They should resemble a harbour crane as you would have found them in this part of the harbour of Cologne about 100 years ago. The river Rhine has always been used heavily for transporting goods and in fact still is. Quite a few of the big chemical companies in Germany (Bayer, BASF) are located right on the river so big ships and modern cranes can be used to get raw materials to and finished products out of the companies.