The story of this place
For centuries the 2,106-metre Gotthard Pass was the shortest route across the Alps between northern and southern Europe, but the Schöllenen Gorge blocked it until, around 1230, engineers spanned the raging Reuss with the 'Teufelsbrücke'—the Devil's Bridge, said in legend to have been built by Satan himself. Control of the pass helped bind the Swiss cantons together and drew merchants, pilgrims and armies. In 1799 Russian General Suvorov fought a desperate crossing here against Napoleon's troops. Beneath it now runs the 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel, opened in 2016.