| This railway is a Unesco 'World Heritage Site': Not only does the railway travel through a beautiful landscape; it takes ingenious advantage of the features of the landscape in order to gain height and it nevertheless blends nicely in, and, finally, it was the first railway to cross the Alps. Being able to cross the Alps using regular traction was a big achievement. Other solutions were considered, hereunder horse carriages on the steepest grades, but the line's constructor, Karl Ritter von Ghegas, was able to make a convincing case for a regular railway and succeeded building it. The line opened in 1854 and has been in use ever since. |
