An anionic polyacrylamide solution was characterized in elongational flow by combining laser-Doppler velocimetry to determine the strain rate in the flow direction and the two-color flow-induced birefringence method to measure the first normal stress difference along the axial centerline of a hyperbolic die. The elongational rate was constant along the axial centerline of the planar hyperbolic die as long as vortices at the die entrance did not occur. The transient elongational viscosity mu(+) was determined as a function of the elongational rate. The parameters varied are the Hencky strain rate and the polymer concentration. mu(+) showed a pronounced increase over the linear viscoelastic behavior mu(+)(0) above critical Hencky strains of 1.2 to 1.5; that is, a significant strain hardening could be observed for polyacrylamide solutions. This strain hardening is stronger the higher the elongational rate. A slight enhancement of strain hardening was found by increasing the concentration from 0.5 to 1 g/l. The stress optical coefficient was determined as 1.8 x 10(-7) Pa-1 (0.5 g/l) and 1.2 x 10(-7) Pa-1 (1 g/l).