The Kiel Canal is a waterway in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal connects the North Sea from the River Elbe to the Baltic Sea at Kiel. The Canal is about long. The canal was first opened to traffic on 19 June 1895. It was then improved to allow the largest warships to pass through. The formal reopening of the improved canal was on June 24, 1914. The Kiel Canal is the busiest artificial waterway for seagoing ships worldwide. In 2014, 32,600 ships passed through the waterway.