The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-03-04
p Under the Alps.

Central Germany have also been COM
PEELED, in attempting to reach Milan in
winter, to make considerable detour If
they wished to go by rail. OF the greater
passes over the Alps, the Mont Gents,
Simplon, the ST. Gothard, the Splugen,
Wormserioch and the Bremen, only the
first and last have hitherto been furnished
with railroads. Passengers from France
have preferred the route over Mont Gems,
and those from Bavaria and Austria that
over the Bremen, both very good so far
as those countries are concerned, but not
so convenient for the Rhineland and
Switzerland itself as the st. Gothard,
which falls almost in a straight line
drawn from Frankfort-on-the- Main,
through Zurich to Milan. The Bremen
line, by Inspruck to Verona, has not put
Switzerland into any closer oommunica-
ton with the Mediterranean; nor can the
route by Mont Cents be said to have as
sisted the Central European Republic in
any way. Hence the desire fora genuine
Swiss railway, like the St. Gothard, which
is expected to be in working order next
July Even now that it is nearly finished,
there is serious talk of rival lines over
the Simplon, Napoleon's great military
road, by piercing the mountain pass be-
tween Brieg and Domo d'Ossola; and
another, suggested in France, by making
more direct route from Geneva to
Turin by burrowing under the monarch
of mountains Mont Blanc itself. The
Simplon scheme favored by Western
Switzerland has apparently only one
Il ,,-lNonI- tho
tunnel eleven miles long. II was there
fore thought by the governments ofGer-
many, Switzerland and Italy, that the
st. Gothard scheme was most deserving
of encouragement, and they contributed
large sums toward its completion. The
line, however, is not government one,
but the work of an ordinary company
subsidized to a large proportion of the
G6, 800 900, which it is estimated the line
will cost. The first chief engineer was
M. Gervig, who was succeeded by M.
Hellwag, now of Vienna, whose post the
present chief engineer, Mr.. Bridel, occu-
pies. The greatest height above the. sea
of the rails in the great tunnel from
Goschenen to Airolo is 3, 7SS feet, being
about 6l0 lower than the highest point
in the Mont Gents tunnel. Its length is
nine miles 46S yards, about one and
three-fourths miles longer than the Mont
Gems tunnel. Its width varies from
twenty-six feet three inches to twenty
four feet eleven inches, and its height to
the crown of the arch is nineteen feet
eight inches, above which rises the
mountain peak known as the Kastle-
horn.
The approach to the tunnel from
the Italian side is at first gradual,
lying along the eastern side of
the Valley of the Ticino. Subsequent
steep assents are overcome by the agency
of spirals. Below the village Giornico
is fine lattice-girder bridge over the
Ticino, with two spans of $50 feet each
About mile to the north is the spiral
tunnel of Travi, passing through hard
granite, and 1893 yards long near which
second spiral, that of Piano Tondo,
nearly as long. These spiral tunnels
which, as Mr.. G. G. Ethelston points out
in his valuable "Notes of Visit to the
St. Gothard Railway" are to an Alpine
Railway as locks to canal-present an
apparently unexampled and most re-
markable feature in engineering science.
When on account of sudden change in
the levels of the valley a considerable
lift is required, the line is run into the
side of the mountain, and the tunnel be-
ing constructed with sharp curve and
steep gradient, the line, at a much
higher level, crosses its former course,
like those corkscrew staircases which
Mr.. Burnand happily thought were in
vented by s. inebriated architects Be-
yond Faido is another spiral tunnel, and
again at Freggio, the next stations to
which are Ambri and Airolo. At the lat
ter the line enters the grand tunnel, the
contractor for which, M. Favre, was one
of the victims to this important work,
having did of apopleXy in the, tunnel it
self in July, 1879. Commenced in the
middle of November, 1872, the nine miles
and a little more than a quarter have
taken nine years to complete, the rock,
through which it was necessary to bore,
being composed mainly of a hard granite
'gneiss. Between the Goschenen end of
the st. Gothard tunnel and Altdorf there
are three spiral tunnels in various parts
OF the valley of the Reuss, much resemb-
ling those in the Valley of the Ticino.
AT Leggestien the aspect of the railway
is remarkable. For nearly mile are seen
three almost parallel railways at different
elevations and apparently unconnected.
but in reality joined by the spiral tunnels
of Wattingen and Leggestein. The line
takes these parallel runs in order to en-
able it to rise to sufficient height to en-
ter the great tunnel two and half miles
farther south. Lower down the valley
is the Pfaffensprung tunnel, bored
through the hardest granite, and after
passing Amsteg the works are of less
grandiose character down to Fluelen, but
between that place and Brunnen are
numerous tunnels. Toward Immense
the work is lighter again, and the ex-
tremity of the st. Gothard Railway, prop
erly so-called, is reached. Switzerland
may well be congratulated on the sue
cess OF a great national work. 1t is true
that the Governments of Germany and
Italy contributed to the cost, but this they
could well afford to do in order to be
brought into close connection. Attimes
some opposition has been made to the
work. 1t was urged that through train
from Zurich or from Germany to Milan
would have the effect of taking travellers
through Switzerland instead into it, and
thus injure the inhabitants; but this odd
fI1h viz III, =