local myth, building the first bridge was very hard and so the Devil himself agreed to build it. The condition attached to the construction was that the Devil would get the soul of the first to pass over the bridge. So, when the bridge was finished, people chased a goat over the bridge. Angered by the trick, the Devil went to pick up a large stone (called Teufelsstein, the Devil's Stone) in order to smash the bridge to pieces. On his way to the bridge however, he encountered an old believing woman with a cross.

Scared of the cross, he left the stone and fled. The devil's stone weighs 220 tons and stands near Göschenen. In 1977, the stone was moved 127 meters to make way for the newmotorway passing over the St.Gotthard Pass, at a cost of 300,000 Swiss Francs. Popular belief has it that the moving of the stone was the cause of an increased number of accidents on kilometre 16 on the St. Gotthard road tunnel.

The old and the new Devil's Bridge. On the new path under the railway bridge towards the old military-tunnel, Switzerland. Image credit Kecko