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57-503: The tunnel rises from the northern portal at Göschenen (1,106 m or 3,629 ft) and the highest point (1,151 m or 3,776 ft) is reached after approximately eight kilometres (5 mi). After two more kilometers, the border between the cantons of Uri and Ticino is passed; after another five kilometres (3 mi), the tunnel ends at the southern portal near to Airolo (1,142 m or 3,747 ft). The trip takes about seven to eight minutes by train. Services are operated by

114-563: A federal state in 1848. The cantons retained far-reaching sovereignty but were no longer allowed to maintain individual standing armies or international relations. As the revolutions of 1848 in Western Europe had failed elsewhere, Switzerland during the later 19th century (and with the exception of the French Third Republic , until the end of World War I ) found itself as an isolated democratic republic, surrounded by

171-407: A federation of states was restored, at the time including 19 cantons (the six accessions to the early modern Thirteen Cantons being composed of former associates and subject territories: St. Gallen , Grisons , Aargau , Thurgau , Ticino , Vaud ). Three additional western cantons, Valais , Neuchâtel and Geneva , acceded in 1815. The process of "Restoration", completed by 1830, returned most of

228-482: A particular municipality (the place of origin ) and the canton in which that municipality is part. Cantons, therefore, have a role in and set requirements for the granting of citizenship (naturalisation), though the process is typically undertaken at a municipal level and is subject to federal law. Switzerland has only one federal public holiday (1 August); public holidays otherwise vary from canton to canton . The cantons are listed in their order of precedence given in

285-538: A popular vote to amend the cantonal constitution or laws or to veto laws or spending bills passed by the parliament. Other than in the instances of general popular assemblies in Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, democratic rights are exercised by secret ballot. The right of foreigners to vote varies by canton, as does whether Swiss citizens living abroad (and registered to vote in a canton) can take part in cantonal voting. Swiss citizens are citizens of

342-419: A result of rock slides, dynamite explosions, and a few drowned due to water inrushes. Of those that survived, several suffered from serious health issues caused by a hookworm epidemic ( Ancylostoma duodenale ). Medical investigations led to "major advances in parasitology , by way of research into the aetiology, epidemiology and treatment of ancylostomiasis ". During 1875, the workforce went on strike ; this

399-550: A second team led by M. Koppe via different methodology. During 1871, construction of the Gotthard Tunnel proper commenced. It would take ten years to complete. Boring was commenced from both sides simultaneously, being reliant upon accurate surveying to keep each bore in alignment with one another. Amongst other feats, the boring process involved the first large-scale use of dynamite , a relatively recent innovation that had only been patented in 1867. Another key innovation

456-452: A testament to the stringent surveying and directing that had been performed throughout the construction phase. The occasion was widely publicised and hailed as a major engineering triumph; the engineer Adolphe Gautier described it at the time as being "the greatest work hitherto attempted by man". Following this milestone, a further two years of construction work continued upon the tunnel. This period of activity largely revolved around removing

513-593: A word for "edge, corner", at the time the literal translation of Early Modern High German ort . After 1490, canton was increasingly used in French and Italian documents to refer to the members of the Swiss Confederacy. English use of canton in reference to the Swiss Confederacy (as opposed to the heraldic sense ) dates to the early 17th century. In the Old Swiss Confederacy,

570-464: Is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Specifically in surveying , triangulation involves only angle measurements at known points, rather than measuring distances to the point directly as in trilateration ; the use of both angles and distance measurements is referred to as triangulateration . Computer stereo vision and optical 3D measuring systems use this principle to determine

627-528: The Waldstätte . Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte ('Eight Cantons'; from 1353 to 1481) and Dreizehn Orte ('Thirteen Cantons', from 1513 to 1798). Each canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy , formerly also Ort ('lieu/locality', from before 1450), or Stand ('estate', from c.  1550 ),

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684-790: The Austrian Empire . Zurich and Tessin favored a tunnel through the Lukmanier , while Basel, Uri and Lucerne tried to prevent this at all means. In 1852, the British supported a tunnel through the Lukmanier massif, but this wasn't realized at the time. Thus in 1853, several Swiss cantons met in Lucerne for a Gotthard Conference. At the conference it was decided to request funds from the Federal Council. which declined alleging that

741-693: The Holy Roman Empire , they had become de facto independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximilian I in 1499 in Dornach. In the early modern period, the individual confederate allies came to be seen as republics ; while the six traditional allies had a tradition of direct democracy in the form of the Landsgemeinde , the urban states operated via representation in city councils, de facto oligarchic systems dominated by families of

798-711: The Swiss Federal Railways . The origins of the Gotthard Tunnel and its construction can be traced back to the widely-felt desire to improve interconnectivity between the European nations. Even prior to the scheme's commencement, such a tunnel had been envisioned as a necessary but singular element of a wider railway network that would connect the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea together, opening up new commercial opportunities by facilitating

855-656: The patriciate . The old system was abandoned with the formation of the Helvetic Republic following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798. The cantons of the Helvetic Republic had merely the status of an administrative subdivision with no sovereignty. The Helvetic Republic collapsed within five years, and cantonal sovereignty was restored with the Act of Mediation of 1803. The status of Switzerland as

912-663: The seqt or seked as the ratio of the run to the rise of a slope , i.e. the reciprocal of gradients as measured today. The slopes and angles were measured using a sighting rod that the Greeks called a dioptra , the forerunner of the Arabic alidade . A detailed contemporary collection of constructions for the determination of lengths from a distance using this instrument is known, the Dioptra of Hero of Alexandria ( c.  10 –70 AD), which survived in Arabic translation; but

969-595: The 16th century, the Old Swiss Confederacy was composed of 13 sovereign confederate allies (the Thirteen Cantons ; German : Die Dreizehn Alten Orte ), and there were two different kinds: five rural states ( German : Länder ) – Uri , Schwyz (which became eponymous of the confederacy), Unterwalden , Glarus , Appenzell – and eight urban states ( German : Städte ) – Zürich , Bern , Luzern , Zug , Basel , Fribourg , Solothurn , Schaffhausen . Though they were technically part of

1026-570: The Confederation, a directorial system of government is followed by the cantons. The cantonal legislatures are unicameral parliaments , with their size varying between 58 and 200 seats. A few legislatures also involve or did involve general popular assemblies known as Landsgemeinden ; the use of this form of legislature has declined: at present, it exists only in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus . The cantonal executives consist of either five or seven members, depending on

1083-488: The Federal Constitution). The cantonal constitutions determine the internal organisation of the canton, including the degree of autonomy accorded to the municipalities , which varies but almost always includes the power to levy taxes and pass municipal laws; some municipalities have their own police forces. As at the federal level, all cantons provide for some form of direct democracy . Citizens may demand

1140-491: The Gotthard Road Tunnel following a fatal fire caused by a collision in 2001. The adjacent ramps include several turn tunnels (see Table of turn tunnels). While a triumph of its era and an example of pioneering engineering, the Gotthard Tunnel was considered to be relatively slow to traverse by twentieth century standards, leading to talk of building a superior successor tunnel as early as the 1940s. During 1980,

1197-500: The Italian border. According to Gautier, at the time of the tunnel's construction, there were proposal to operate trains hauled by atmospheric locomotives through the tunnel; however, he voiced his scepticism over the value of doing so in comparison to the additional work that would need to be performed to facilitate such rolling stock being operated. There were also some concerns over the tunnel's ventilation being sufficient considering

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1254-469: The best drills being blunted and greatly slowing the rate of advancement, sometimes to as little as one meter per day. There was also a section of entirely disaggregated bedrock encountered, which could only be cleared using traditional manual techniques, which came with the risk of potential collapse. To attain sufficient clearance for the running of trains, the ceiling was vaulted following the completion of advanced boring. The conditions present in either of

1311-440: The bores were thoroughly inhospitable during the tunnel's construction, particularly in the bore driven from Airolo, where vapours were persistently present throughout the work. They were also hazardous; in one major accident alone, around 200 workers (the exact number is not known) were killed largely by the compressed air-driven trains that were used to carry excavated material out of the tunnel; other tunnel workers were killed as

1368-521: The bores. Air was compressed by water-driven pumps and stored in cooled reservoirs prior to use; as the air pipes traversed greater and greater distances, the diameter of the pipes used was increased in order to maintain pressure. To reduce the heat of the rock during drilling, water jets were routinely used to cool the rockface. While the geology encountered typically comprised rocks of sufficient hardness for mechanical drilling to be used, those of exceptional hardness were often encountered, resulting in even

1425-562: The canton. For the names of the institutions, see the list of cantonal executives and list of cantonal legislatures . The cantons retain all powers and competencies not delegated to the Confederation by the federal constitution or law: most significantly the cantons are responsible for healthcare , welfare , law enforcement, public education , and retain the power of taxation . Each canton defines its official language(s). Cantons may conclude treaties not only with other cantons but also with foreign states (respectively Articles 48 and 56 of

1482-527: The cantons vary from 37 km (15 sq. mi.) ( Basel-Stadt ) to 7,105 km (2743 sq. mi.) ( Grisons ); the populations (as of 2018) range from 16,000 ( Appenzell Innerrhoden ) to 1.5 million ( Zürich ). The term canton , now also used as the English term for administrative subdivisions of other countries, originates in French usage in the late 15th century (recorded in Fribourg in 1467), from

1539-497: The challenging conditions encountered during construction, but it was believed that these would settle during routine operations without the need for extensive intervention. During 1909, the Gotthardbahn was integrated into the Swiss Federal Railways . On 18 October 1920, the first electric trains were run through the Gotthard Tunnel. Initially, the voltage had to be reduced from the desired 15 kilovolts to 7.5 kV , because

1596-411: The excess spoil and the completion of its masonry. These finishing works were considered to be relatively low risk compared with the preceding boring that had taken so long, and was actually easier to complete than the approach lines to meet with either end of the tunnel. On 1 January 1882, the Gotthard Tunnel was opened for traffic for the first time. The opening drew substantial international attention;

1653-1479: The federal constitution. This reflects the historical order of precedence of the Eight Cantons in the 15th century, followed by the remaining cantons in the order of their historical accession to the confederacy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Triangulation In trigonometry and geometry , triangulation

1710-425: The final bid submitted by the Swiss engineer Louis Favre was selected as the best offer, receiving a contract to build the tunnel with an estimated cost of 2830 Swiss francs per meter. As a consequence of the relatively low bid, which contrasted poorly against the additional costs that were incurred during construction, Favre increasingly found himself at odds with Swiss politicians and investors alike. Even prior to

1767-582: The first Gotthard Tunnel, enabling trains to traverse the Central Alps on a flat and straight route and therefore more efficiently, at higher speeds, with much less energy consumption, and longer freight trains. Cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation . The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as

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1824-483: The former feudal rights to the cantonal patriciates , leading to rebellions among the rural population. The Radicals embodied these democratic forces calling for a new federal constitution. This tension, paired with religious issues ("Jesuit question") escalated into armed conflict in the 1840s, with the brief Sonderbund War . The victory of the Liberal-Radicals resulted in the formation of Switzerland as

1881-550: The grime deposited on the insulators by the steam locomotives encouraged excessive arcing . However, in May the next year, steam was replaced entirely by electric traction, and the problem of soot and grime was eliminated. During 1932, a memorial for those workers who had died during the tunnel's construction was erected close to the station building at Airolo. The memorial contains a relief produced by Vincenzo Vela from 1882/1883, titled "Vittime del lavoro" (Victims of labour). Until

1938-549: The gun direction, the trajectory and distribution of fire power of weapons . The use of triangles to estimate distances dates to antiquity. In the 6th century BC, about 250 years prior to the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty , the Greek philosopher Thales is recorded as using similar triangles to estimate the height of the pyramids of ancient Egypt . He measured the length of the pyramids' shadows and that of his own at

1995-462: The knowledge became lost in Europe until in 1615 Snellius , after the work of Eratosthenes , reworked the technique for an attempt to measure the circumference of the earth. In China, Pei Xiu (224–271) identified "measuring right angles and acute angles" as the fifth of his six principles for accurate map-making, necessary to accurately establish distances, while Liu Hui ( c.  263 ) gives

2052-572: The late 15th century. Ort was increasingly replaced by Stand (plural: Stände ) ' estate ' about 1550, a term taken to imply liberty and sovereignty. Abolished in the Helvetic Republic, the term 'Stand' was revived in 1815 and remains in use today. The French term canton adopted into German after 1648 , and then only in occasional use until the early 19th century: prominent usage of Ort and Stand gradually disappeared in German-speaking Switzerland from

2109-657: The law prohibited the state from financially supporting private railways. But the Federal Councillor Josef Martin Knüsel supported the realization of the Gotthard Tunnel and was against the Lukmanier route. Accordingly, the Gotthard Railway Company was established in 1871 to develop such a route, the company being initially operated under the stewardship of the accomplished Swiss industrialist Alfred Escher . Prior to its formation, surveys had been conducted that determined

2166-505: The modern era, since Neuchâtel ceased to be a principality in 1848, all Swiss cantons can be considered to have a republican form of government . Some cantons formally describe themselves as republics in their constitutions. This applies to the Romance-speaking cantons in particular: Geneva (formally République et canton de Genève , 'Republic and canton of Geneva'), Jura , Neuchâtel , Valais , Vaud and Ticino . In

2223-553: The movement of goods and people between the ports of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany with those of Northern Italy, along with many of the major inland cities lying in between. To achieve this, it was necessary for the line to traverse the Alps around its most central point. Of all possible routes, Gotthard had historically been a favoured one for the passage of travellers by foot or packhorse . But several other locations where

2280-474: The neighbouring Gotthard Road Tunnel was opened; by 2016, it was reportedly being used to convey around one million freight lorries each year. A second railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel , was opened on 1 June 2016 after 17 years of construction; in comparison, it is considerably longer (57.1 km; namely the world's longest railway tunnel) and at an about 500 m lower elevation than

2337-408: The onset of construction activity, the location of the tunnel presented challenges that exceeded those of the earlier Fréjus Rail Tunnel; due to both the steepness and height of the summits, surveys using direct observation were impossible, thus more complex indirect techniques combining triangulation and accurate cartography were performed by a team headed by M. Gelpke, and subsequently confirmed by

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2394-613: The opening of the Gotthard Road Tunnel in 1980, the Swiss Federal Railways offered car shuttle train services for cars and trucks through the Gotthard Tunnel. Today, that service exists as the rolling highway from the German to the Italian border and aims to reduce truck traffic on Swiss expressways. An improvisational piggyback service from Göschenen to Airolo was offered during the two-month closure of

2451-479: The optimum locations for either end of the prospective tunnel to be at Göschenen and Airolo . Initially, there were difficulties encountered in securing sufficient finance for the project; accordingly the financing was distributed among a wide variety of private and public investors from Switzerland (20M CHF), Italy (45M CHF) and the German Empire (20M CHF). The confidence of both investors and engineers

2508-541: The president of Switzerland, Simeon Bavier , praised the project and declare it to be: "A triumph of art and science, a monument to work and diligence! The barrier which divided nations has fallen, the Swiss Alps have been breached. Countries have moved closer to each other, the world market is open!". Initially, the tunnel was operated by the private railway company Gotthardbahn, which ran conventional trains drawn by steam locomotives between Lucerne and Chiasso at

2565-437: The recognition of former subject territories as full cantons. The Federal Treaty of 1815 increased the number to 22 due to the accession of former associates of the Old Swiss Confederacy . The canton of Jura acceded as the 23rd canton with its secession from Bern in 1979. The official number of cantons was increased to 26 in the federal constitution of 1999 , which designated former half-cantons as cantons. The areas of

2622-631: The restored monarchies of France , Italy , Austria-Hungary and Germany . The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent that their sovereignty is not limited by federal law. Areas specifically reserved to the Confederation are the armed forces, currency, the postal service, telecommunications, immigration into and emigration from the country, granting asylum, conducting foreign relations with sovereign states, civil and criminal law, weights and measures, and customs duties. Each canton has its own constitution , legislature , executive , police and courts . Similar to

2679-477: The same moment, and compared the ratios to his height ( intercept theorem ). Thales also estimated the distances to ships at sea as seen from a clifftop by measuring the horizontal distance traversed by the line-of-sight for a known fall, and scaling up to the height of the whole cliff. Such techniques would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. Problem 57 of the Rhind papyrus , a thousand years earlier, defines

2736-399: The sensors is the base b and must be known. By determining the angles between the projection rays of the sensors and the basis, the intersection point, and thus the 3D coordinate, is calculated from the triangular relations. Triangulation today is used for many purposes, including surveying , navigation , metrology , astrometry , binocular vision , model rocketry and, in the military,

2793-402: The spatial dimensions and the geometry of an item. Basically, the configuration consists of two sensors observing the item. One of the sensors is typically a digital camera device, and the other one can also be a camera or a light projector. The projection centers of the sensors and the considered point on the object's surface define a (spatial) triangle. Within this triangle, the distance between

2850-468: The term Ort (plural: Orte ) was in use from the early 15th century as a generic term for the member cantons. The founding cantons specifically were also known as Waldstätte 'forest settlements' (singular: Waldstatt ). The formulaic Stette und Waldstette for the members of the early confederacy is recorded in the mid-14th century, used interchangeably with Stett und Lender ('cities and lands', 'city cantons and rural cantons') until

2907-700: The time of the Helvetic Republic . Only with the Act of Mediation of 1803 did German Kanton become an official designation, retained in the Swiss Constitution of 1848. The term Stand ( French : état , Italian : stato ) remains in synonymous usage and is reflected in the name of the upper chamber of the Swiss Parliament, the Council of States ( German : Ständerat , French : Conseil des États , Italian : Consiglio degli Stati , Romansh : Cussegl dals Stadis ). In

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2964-628: The tunnel through the Alps was to be constructed were also discussed. in 1838 Zanino Volta of Como approached St.Gallen and Grisons with plans of a tunnel through the Splügen . In the 1840s, the two cantons then joined forces with the Ticino for a tunnel through the Lukmanier. The Kingdom of Sardinia then wanted a tunnel through the Grimsel , so the tunnel through the Alps would be further away from

3021-480: Was a fully sovereign state with its own border controls, army, and currency from at least the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848, with a brief period of centralised government during the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803). The term Kanton has been widely used since the 19th century. The number of cantons was increased to 19 with the Act of Mediation (1803), with

3078-601: Was bolstered by the Fréjus Rail Tunnel , the construction of which had been substantially aided by the introduction of various modern innovations that made the prospects of building long tunnels more practical than they previously had been. It was decided that the contract to build the tunnel ought to be subject to a competitive tendering process, during which a bidding war broke out between two engineering companies, based in Geneva and Italy respectively. Ultimately,

3135-519: Was necessary in order to power any heavy equipment at the time, was unreliable; the Tremola spring was one source, but would greatly change in capacity seasonally, leading to water being extracted from the more distant river Ticino instead. At the suggestion of the Geneva-based engineer M. Colladon, it was decided to use compressed air as a means of conveying energy around the worksite and along

3192-447: Was promptly violently suppressed by local police force (21 men) from Altdorf , resulting in four deaths amongst the workers and the wounding of 13 others. Consequently, 80 workers left the building site. During 29 February 1880, it was announced that both of the tunnel's advance borings had broken through into one another around the mountain's middle point. It was also observed that a high degree of accuracy had successfully been achieved,

3249-599: Was the use of mechanised tunneling machines , which Favre, supervisor of the work as well as prime contractor, strongly advocated for, despite pressure to make greater use of manual boring. The engineering used to create the tunnel can be largely credited to Favre, although he was unable to see its completion, having suffered a fatal heart attack while inside the tunnel on 19 July 1879, barely six months before breakthrough would be achieved. The tunnel's construction proved difficult on account of multiple factors technical, geological, and financial. The copious supply of water, which

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