Stuttgart city centre is located in the valley of the Nesenbach at an altitude of about 250 metres.
The valley is surrounded on three sides by hills, which rise to 200 metres above Stuttgart and fall only slightly to the northwest, where there is a low pass called the Pragsattel ("Prag saddle", 306 m).
In the northeast, the valley opens up to the Neckar, which lies about 3.5 km from the Stuttgart centre.
The geographical location of Stuttgart is often called a Talkessel (basin).

The population of Stuttgart had doubled to 40,000 between 1800 and 1840 and it was the largest city and the economic centre of Württemberg.
The city, however, had spread primarily to the southwest (i.e. inside the basin) where the valley was relatively wide, in the north, there was discontinuous development only as far as Schillerstraße (which is now the location of Stuttgart Central Station) and along the Neckar road (Neckarstraße, part of which is now called Konrad Adenauer-Strasse).
The palace gardens also prevented the growth of the city to the north; these ran from today's old town in a 200-metre-wide strip to the Neckar, where the output of the valley is again narrowed by the hills of Rosenstein (which is topped by Rosenstein Castle) and Berg.
Further upstream and downstream the Neckar runs through a narrow, deep valley.
Opposite the confluence of the Nesenbach with the Neckar is Cannstatt (called Bad Cannstatt since 1933).
With 5,500 inhabitants, Cannstatt was much smaller than Stuttgart in 1840, but it had always been an important transport hub, as it was on an ancient trade route from the Rhine valley to the Danube (near Ulm) and the Neckar River was navigable downstream from here.

Before the invention of modern transport, Stuttgart was rarely described as having a poor location for transport purposes, which was not a principle of urban settlement normally taken into account at the time.
Once the railway had been invented, its location meant that Stuttgart could not be on the direct through railway between the eastern and western borders, indeed access into the basin, except from the northeast was a problem, so that for a time Stuttgart could only be connected by a branch line, despite its economic importance and potential for generating traffic.
The fact that the city barely extended towards the Neckar meant, at least, that a direct link to the city centre could be built.

Already the construction of the first railway in Württemberg was beset with difficulties that other comparable countries were spared at the time.
The required levelling work, tunnels and bridges also made the construction comparatively expensive.
Around 1835 the planning of railway networks was still in its infancy and it continued to develop during its planning, so that considerable uncertainty existed regarding the applicable construction parameters, such as acceptable curve radii and gradients.
The ability of the economically weak Württemberg railway network to continue to extend its operations ultimately proved to be decisive for the country.
Stuttgart city centre is located in the valley of the Nesenbach at an altitude of about 250 metres. The valley is surrounded on three sides by hills, which rise to 200 metres above Stuttgart and fall only slightly to the northwest, where there is a low pass called the Pragsattel ("Prag saddle", 306 m). In the northeast, the valley opens up to the Neckar, which lies about 3.5 km from the Stuttgart centre. The geographical location of Stuttgart is often called a Talkessel (basin).
The population of Stuttgart had doubled to 40,000 between 1800 and 1840 and it was the largest city and the economic centre of Württemberg. The city, however, had spread primarily to the southwest (i.e. inside the basin) where the valley was relatively wide, in the north, there was discontinuous development only as far as Schillerstraße (which is now the location of Stuttgart Central Station) and along the Neckar road (Neckarstraße, part of which is now called Konrad Adenauer-Strasse). The palace gardens also prevented the growth of the city to the north; these ran from today's old town in a 200-metre-wide strip to the Neckar, where the output of the valley is again narrowed by the hills of Rosenstein (which is topped by Rosenstein Castle) and Berg. Further upstream and downstream the Neckar runs through a narrow, deep valley. Opposite the confluence of the Nesenbach with the Neckar is Cannstatt (called Bad Cannstatt since 1933). With 5,500 inhabitants, Cannstatt was much smaller than Stuttgart in 1840, but it had always been an important transport hub, as it was on an ancient trade route from the Rhine valley to the Danube (near Ulm) and the Neckar River was navigable downstream from here.
Before the invention of modern transport, Stuttgart was rarely described as having a poor location for transport purposes, which was not a principle of urban settlement normally taken into account at the time. Once the railway had been invented, its location meant that Stuttgart could not be on the direct through railway between the eastern and western borders, indeed access into the basin, except from the northeast was a problem, so that for a time Stuttgart could only be connected by a branch line, despite its economic importance and potential for generating traffic. The fact that the city barely extended towards the Neckar meant, at least, that a direct link to the city centre could be built.
Already the construction of the first railway in Württemberg was beset with difficulties that other comparable countries were spared at the time. The required levelling work, tunnels and bridges also made the construction comparatively expensive. Around 1835 the planning of railway networks was still in its infancy and it continued to develop during its planning, so that considerable uncertainty existed regarding the applicable construction parameters, such as acceptable curve radii and gradients. The ability of the economically weak Württemberg railway network to continue to extend its operations ultimately proved to be decisive for the country.
Württemberg Central Railway