page_title: Gotthard railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gotthard railway / History
caption_attribution_description: Gotthardbahn: Zeitgenössische Darstellung, eine Arbeitslokomotive wird mit komprimierter Luft gespeist.
context_page_description: The Gotthard railway is the Swiss trans-alpine railway line from northern Switzerland to the canton of Ticino. The line forms a major part of an important international railway link between northern and southern Europe, especially on the Rotterdam-Basel-Genoa corridor. The Gotthard Railway Company was the former private railway company which financed the construction of, and originally operated, that line.
  The railway comprises a main line from Immensee to Chiasso, together with branches, from Immensee to Lucerne and Rotkreuz, from Arth-Goldau to Zug, and from Bellinzona to Locarno and Luino. The main line, second highest standard railway in Switzerland, penetrates the Alps by means of the Gotthard Tunnel at 1,151 metres above sea level. The line then descends as far as Bellinzona, at 241 metres above sea level, before climbing again to the pass of Monte Ceneri, on the way to Lugano and Chiasso. The extreme differences in altitude necessitate the use of long ramped approaches on each side, together with several spirals.
  Construction of the line started in 1872, with some lowland sections opening by 1874. The full line opened in 1882, following completion of the Gotthard Tunnel.
caption: Contemporary drawing showing a construction locomotive
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP pstc6100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2009:06:14 02:53:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:06:12 21:19: 8", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF SubSecTime": "609", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2167", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1498", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "440", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}