Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-19
BEAUTIFUL ITALIAN LAKES.
THE FAMOUS TUNNEL OVER NINE
MILES LONG.
Over the st. Gothard by Rail-The Won.
derful Alpine Route from
Zurich to Milan.

Zurich to Milan.
STREsA, LAGo MAGGIoRE, |
September %, 1889. !
Up to less than decade ago the italian
lakes were only accessible from the north
ward by long and tedious diligence trips
through one or another of the various Al
pine passes. 1t was only the opening of
the st. Gothard Railway, in 1882, which
made the Lakes Maggiore, Como and Luz
gano, with their wondrous natural charms
easily accessible by rail in single day
from points north of the Alps. To-day SO
far have these facilities been developed
that one can leave Lucerne or Zurich
about 9 A. NJ and reach either of the three
lakes named by 8 o'clock the same after
noon. The travel over the Gothard has
consequently increased to dimensions
which would astound one making his first
trip over the road. In fact, | know of no
other route which combines such grandeur
and variety of scenery with such detailed
system and comfort for travelling.
1 / came down here by the morning ex-
press from Zurich to Milan few days ago.
have since made the tour of the three
lakes, and now-even at the risk of being
suspected of writing recLdme-I propose
to describe to your readers, in general
way, the charms and surprises of ride
over the St. Gothard, in the hope that
every reader who has not already made
this wonderful journey will lose no time in
doing so as soon as the opportunity may
present itself
1t is curious to study in this connection
the successive steps by which, with the adj
vance of science and civilization, the
giddy footpath through the widest of
mountain Businesses has gradually devel-
oped into steel-ballasted railway. Yet this
Is the history of the Gothard Pass.
Some historians assert that this pass
was known as long ago as 900 years B. c.,
and that through it the Gauls found way
tor making their first descent on the plains
of Lombardy. This is, however, not sus-
tanned by any adequate proof, and the
earliest written record of the Gothard is
furnished by Benedictine monk, one
Albert Won Stade, who, about the middle
of the thirteenth century, published an
account of this pathway, claiming that by
it one could reach Bellinzona in three
days from Lucerne. A little later the
path came into frequent use by the Swiss,
, who by thousands went to Italy to enter
the military service Of various potentates
as was at that time the mode. Then
/ traders began to use it, and it was put in
: condition for the passage Of pack animals.
But the improvement went on very slowly;
[ and it was not until IT'S that the first
; vehicle-belonging by the way, to an enter
prising English naturalist-was driven
: over the mountain from Altdorf to
: Giornico.
, In the early part of the present century,
: the interested cantons took charge of the
matter, and the result is magnificent
post-road sweeping up to the mountains
, summit and down again on the other side,
, through the zigzags of Val Tremola, to
! the Tessin valley. Finally, browning all,
came the railroad, whisking palace coaches
i through these wild solitudes, and enabling
one to take breakfast at Lucerne, lunch at
, the mountain top and dinner at Milan, on
one and the same day. What would the
, Benedictine monk have said to that? And
! how he would have opened his eyes in
| pious wonder when told that, of the 176
, kilometers composing the line, nearly one
, quarter of the distance, or Al kilometers,
is tunneled through the solid rock. But
} we are not going to worry his rest with
, statistics now, poor man. Let him sleep
satisfied with the memory of his simple
footpath:
In my opinion, one of the most curious
and remarkable features on the st. Goth
| o,I IL lie hu nf
which, as by spiral graded roadway, the
} heart of mountain side or cliff, going in
at one level and emerging at another, far
above or below it. There are places by
! Wasen on the north and Dazio Grande on
the south side of the mountain where one,
looking from the car window or the porti-
Goes with which the observation cars are
provided, sees within a quarter of mile
6 three successive levels or trackways, one
above the other. 1t is difficult to per-
, suade yourself that it is really one and the
same line, unless you take some fixed point
or stationary object which the train passes
I on one level and then watch for it on the
second and third. The effect at night in
the dark valley, with the three tiers Of
track-lights sparkling like stars among the
e rocks and gorges, is something weirdly
D beautiful.
e The great engineering feat, however, of
e the line indeed one of the wonders of the
: time, is the famous tunnel under the sum-
S NIT of the mountain, leading from Gees
chenen on the north to Airolo on the south
: side Much has been written about this
: great achievement, but no writing can af
4 ford any adequate description of it. One
r must ride through it at express train speed
S and yet require siateen minutes to do so in
e order to realize where the ten years work,
and the one hundred and seventeen lives
. and the two million pounds of dynamite
and the seven hundred kilos ofilluminating
: oil which its construction cost all went to.
A tunnel over nine miles long cannot be
understood simply in imagination. II
must be traversed to be understood.
thousand feet directly over it, lies the vii
lage of Andermatt, and three thousand
feet, the little Lake of Sella, sparkling like
a jewel in the rough grey mountain-tor
setting. One realizes first on emerging
again into the daylight what wonderful
tunnel it is-and wonderful indeed il
should be-for it cost matter of ffty-siz
million francs and upward.
There was one incident connected with
its construction that for while gravely
menaced success. On the 18th of July,
1879, as the work was well-nigh approach
ing completion, its master.spirit, Louis
Favre, of Geneva, who had invited some
friends to inspect the interior of the tun-
mel, was Frustrated by the great heat aud
died of apoplexy. Another instance, like
that of Mr.. Roebling. the engineer Of
the Brooklyn Bridge, of great protector
not being permitted to survive the ac-
complishment of a work he himself had
inaugurated.
The problem of keeping the tempera.