The St. Gotthard Pass
After leaving Erstfeld, a large railway station, the ascent begins.
A heavier engine has been attached to the train, and we enter a rocky
defile flanked by steep and lofty mountains. At the base of these rushes
the foaming river Reuss, forming of itself a succession of beautiful
waterfalls, and receiving numberless smaller cascades which appears
to spring from the tops of the highest peaks. As we proceed, the gorge
begins to narrow and the interest to increase. It seems as though the
turbulent Reuss, thinking merely of its own convenience, had cut a
place just large enough for itself through the solid rocks. Therefore the
train is obliged much of the way to make a path for itself within the
mountain. The heaviest grade on the road is one foot in four. In many
places, however, it has been made much less than this, by the use of
bridges and curved tunnels, as shown in the accompanying engraving.
There are three of these tunnels on the north side of the mountains,
and four on the south side.
In the first of these tunnels, the Pfaffensprung, the train enters
the side of a mountain, describes a complete ascending circle of over
sixteen hundred yards, and, emerging from the mountain, crosses its
own track one hundred and fifteen feet above the place where it entered.
Then, crossing the boiling Reuss by a huge iron bridge, the train enters
the Wattinger loop tunnel, in which an ascent of seventy-six feet is
made. Then another bridge across the river, the considerable village
of Wasen, and we plunge into the third curved tunnel. Beyond this the
train skirts the mountain side, from which is obtained a grand view of
the windings just traversed, lying far below. Altogether, this railroad
has over fifty bridges, most of them large iron structures, and fifty-six
tunnels.
The longest of these is called, by way of distinction, the St. Got-
thard. This one tunnel is nine and one-fourth miles long. In the middle
of it the road reaches its highest elevation, 3787 feet above the sea,
and then begins to descend on the other side. During the seven and
one-half years in which this one tunnel was in process of construction,
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