See also: Saint-Gothard (homonymy), Gotthard

The Saint-Gothard is a Massif mountainous located in the chain of the the Alps in Suisse, at the border of four Swiss Cantons: the canton free - Germanophone of the Were worth, the canton Italophone of the Tessin, the canton Germanophone of Uri and the canton italo - rhéto - Germanophone of the Grisons.

It owes its name with the bishop of Hildesheim, which propagated the Réforme clunisienne through the Saint Empire. To indicate the Saint-Gothard there exist several denominations: in French-speaking Switzerland, one often speaks about Gotthard still written Gothard ; with the Tessin, one speaks about Saint-Gothard ( San Gottardo in Italian) and in German-speaking Switzerland Saint-Gotthard ( St Gotthard ).

Saint-Gothard is an important axis of transport in Europe for the motorists and the transport of the goods (via the rail) going north to the south of Europe and vice versa. To cross Saint-Gothard, it is possible to take the road of the collar, or to borrow the tunnels.

Solid mass

History

Saint-Gothard was a long time a natural Frontière between the north and the south of the the Alps. Many old men bridges always exist on the way of the collar of Saint-Gothard. Most famous of them is the bridge of the Devil.

The Swiss Armée did of them one of the pillars of its protection with hundreds of kilometers of galleries and the presence of guns. These fortifications are mainly unused today.

Source of the Rhone

The the Rhone takes its source on the solid mass of Saint-Gotthard, with the Furka.

Saint-Gothard is called the “tower water of Europe” from his proximity with the Glacier S of the Valaisan Alps , uranaises, tessinoises and Grison.

Source of the Rhine

The the Rhine also takes its source on the sides of Saint-Gothard

Collar and road of Saint-Gothard

The collar of Saint-Gothard ( San Gottardo in Italian, Gotthardpass in German) is a alpine collar (2108 m), 26 kilometers length, which connects Andermatt in the canton of Uri to Airolo with the Tessin.

Crossing point since many centuries, it is not foreign with the constitution of a first confederation of cantons at the end of the 13th century. The peasants who lived this area drew from the incomes of the passage of the collar, and decided émanciper of the Tutelle of the Habsbourg.

Summit

The top of Saint-Gothard is located at 2108 m, one finds there today the old old people's home of Saint-Gothard, located on a side of the road, and new buildings including/understanding a museum, a hotel, a restaurant and a souvenir shop, built vis-a-vis the old old people's home on the side opposite of the road, as well as a lake. To join Airolo, there exist two roads which leave since the top: the Tremola (which means trembling in Italian), the old road, still almost entirely paved, but prohibited with the motor vehicle traffic; and a more modern road. To join Andermatt, the sinuous road offers a sight on splendid landscapes.

Tunnels

In second half of the 19th century, a railway first tunnel (15 km) was bored through the solid mass, under the direction of the Genevese Louis Favre. It was completed in 1882.

See also: railway Tunnel of Saint-Gothard

More recently, a road tunnel came to supplement the device of this important passage of the the Alps, inaugurated in 1980.

See also: Road tunnel of Saint-Gothard

In the optics of the improvement of transport between the North and the South of Europe and to limit the Pollution, the highway network on the collar and in the highway axis passing by the tunnel being often extremely saturated, two new railway tubes is in the course of construction and will constitute, with their completion envisaged in 2018, the longest tunnel of the world, with its 57 kilometers of Erstfeld to Bodio at a cost exceeding ten billion Swiss francs.

The construction project, in the middle of the railway tunnel, of a named underground station Porta Alpina is given up or at least pushed back. A 800 meters height elevator was to make it possible to join surface with Sedrun.

See also: basic Tunnel of Saint-Gothard

These two tunnels connect the Tessin and Uri.

See too

Internal bonds

Geographical bonds

• the Alps
• Aar-Gothard
• the Bridge of the Devil

Railway bonds

• the Swiss federal Railroads (CF)
• railway New lines through the Alps NLFA
• the basic Tunnel of Gothard

Others

• Gotthard, Swiss rock group

External bonds

• Site of the company AlpTransit Gotthard SA, project superintendent
• Document pdf of the project superintendent (of about fifty pages)
• Of the webcams which film the traffic in Saint-Gothard

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