ferry would provide no lasting solution. With the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the military objections to a fixed Elbe crossing was removed. It was finally decided to build a swing bridge, which was opened in 1878 after two years of construction, allowing through trains from Lübeck to Lüneburg. On 1 July 1870, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway's Lübeck–Bad Kleinen line was opened to the LBE station in Lübeck, and in 1871 the first continuous services operated between Hamburg and Stettin (now Szczecin). The Eutin-Lübeck Railway Company established a line to Eutin in 1873, completing a link between Lübeck and Kiel. In 1916, Lübeck-Segeberg line opened to Bad Segeberg. From the beginning it was operated by the LBE; it only acquired its own rolling stock after the Second World War. An important railway junction was at Bad Oldesloe, which was connected to Neumünster by the Altona-Kiel Railway Company (Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, AKE) in 1875. In 1884 the AKE was nationalised and became part of the Prussian State Railways (Königlich Preußische Staatseisenbahnen (K.P.St.E)). In 1884, K.P.St.E opened a line to Schwarzenbek and in 1897 a line from Ratzeburg to Hagenow (the Kaiser Railway), creating two additional connections to the Berlin-Hamburg line. The opening of the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloe line in 1907 created another connection to Oldesloe. In 1899, a line to Hollenbek was opened from Mölln by the Prussian State Railways, connecting with the Ratzeburg–Hagenow line. In 1903, the Ratzeburg Light Railway (Ratzeburger Kleinbahn) was opened from Ratzeburg and in 1904 the Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldorf Electric Light Railway (Elektrische Kleinbahn Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldor) was opened from Rahlstedt, where it connected with the Lübeck–Hamburg line. There were numerous industry sidings, especially in the urban areas of Lübeck, Hamburg and Wandsbek. In the 1910s the LBE refused to agree to connection at Ahrensburg station with the proposed Hamburg Forest Villages Railway (Walddörferbahn), with the result that this line, which is now part of line U 1 of the Hamburg U-Bahn runs through the southern part of the town, without connecting to the Lübeck–Hamburg line station. New stations In the area of Lübecker Bahnhof in Hamburg, in the early 20th century, there were three stations (Berliner Bahnhof, Hannöverscher Bahnhof and the Bahnhof Klosterthor), none of which had a direct connection to the LBE line. On 6 December 1906, they were replaced by the new Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (central station), when the