Furka Pass

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Furka Pass
View from the Grimselpass-Strasse onto the Furkapass-Strasse and the Rhone Glacier to the left

View from the Grimselpass-Strasse onto the Furkapass-Strasse and the Rhone Glacier to the left

Compass direction Northeast southwest
Pass height 2429  m above sea level M.
Canton Uri Valais
Watershed Furkareuss , Reuss ( Rhine ) Muttbach, Rhone
Valley locations Realp Oberwald
expansion Pass road / railway tunnel
Built 1864-1866
Winter closure October – May
particularities Furka Base Tunnel  (1982)
Furka Peak Tunnel  (1926)
profile
Denzel scale SG 2-3 SG 2
Ø pitch 7.4% (891 m / 12 km) 6.6% (1063 m / 16 km)
Max. Incline 10% 11%
map
Furkapass (Switzerland)
Furka Pass
Coordinates 674 849  /  158379 coordinates: 46 ° 34 '21 "  N , 8 ° 24' 54"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred and seventy-four thousand eight hundred forty-nine  /  158379
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The Furkapass is a 2429  m above sea level. M. high Swiss road pass in the Alps . It connects the Urserental (the upper Reuss valley ) in the canton of Uri with the Goms district in the canton of Valais . The European watershed between the Mediterranean and the North Sea runs along it .

The name comes from the Latin furca , which means a two-pronged fork .

traffic

Street

The pass road is part of the main road 19 . In the western valley town of Gletsch , the road branches off to the Grimsel Pass .

The Furka Pass is on the Rhone Route , Switzerland's national cycle route 1.

At 2272  m above sea level M. is the hotel Belvédère on the west side of the pass , from which you have access to the end of the Rhone glacier .

Panorama Furka: View of the Rhone Valley shortly before the top of the pass

railroad

Until 1981, the Furka-Oberalp-Bahn overcame the Furka Pass on a not winter-safe cogwheel route and in the Furka summit tunnel, which was completed in 1925 . This is at 2160  m above sea level. M. the highest alpine cut in Switzerland.

With the opening of the Furka Base Tunnel , the mountain route was closed. The dismantling of the line could, however, be prevented by railway enthusiasts. From 1992 the Furka-Berglinie AG steam railway operated a museum railway on parts of the mountain route . The entire route was reopened on August 12, 2010.

Year-round is between Realp and Oberwald VS a car-train offered by the railway base tunnel.

height

On the map of the Swiss national topography , the pass height is 2429  m above sea level. M. , on the sign on site (pass summit) is still 2,436 m. ü. M. stated as it was recorded on the old Siegfried card.

history

Stagecoach at the hospice

The pass was already used in Roman times. Later, too, there was a mule track , over which more and more goods were transported from the 13th century, such as salt, wine, hides and grain; Goms also had Alps in the Ursern Valley. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Rhone Glacier reached down to Gletsch.

In the years 1864 to 1866 the almost 40 kilometer long road with a width of at least 4.20 meters from Hospental to Oberwald was built. For military reasons, the federal government paid two thirds of the costs. Horse mail operated on the new road until 1921 when the first post bus drove over the pass. In 1911 construction began on the Furka Railway , which opened in 1925, but could only be used for a few months in the summer. In 1982 the winter-safe Furka Base Tunnel was put into operation.

In 1964, some scenes from the James Bond film Goldfinger with Sean Connery and Gert Fröbe were shot on the Furka Pass . The scenes in Switzerland are now considered classics in Bond history and were also cited in later films; for example the scene over Monaco in Goldeneye .

literature

Web links

Commons : Furkapass  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 2: Emmenholz - Kraialppass . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1904, p. 209, keyword Furka and Furgge   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  2. ↑ picture of the shield
  3. ↑ map.geo.admin.ch
  4. ↑ Hans Stadler: Furka Pass. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  5. ^ A b c d Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de géographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 2: Emmenholz - Kraialppass . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1904, p. 209, keyword Furka   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  6. ^ Opening of the Furkapassstrasse on the Valais side. (PDF; 15 kB) Press release. (No longer available online.) In: Le chef de l'information de l'Etat du Valais. September 28, 2000, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 28, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.vs.ch