Europe's highest-altitude railway station celebrates its centenary
- Cross reference: Picture is available via epa european pressphoto agency and can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100002850/?langid=2 -
The Jungfrau Railway was one hundred years old on 1 August 2012. To celebrate the centenary, 48 flares were lit on the north walls of the Eiger and Mönch showing the route of the historic railway through the two mountains.
One hundred years ago, Italian construction workers set off a huge charge of dynamite and succeeded in breaking through to the Jungfraujoch. Europe's highest-altitude railway station was officially opened on 1 August 1912. Exactly 100 years later, the Jungfrau Railway celebrated its centenary with a grand firework display. Forty-eight flares burned for five minutes on the north walls of the Eiger and Mönch mountains to illustrate the route taken by the Jungfrau Railway. Visitors to the centenary celebrations followed the spectacle from beneath the Eiger North Wall.
During their one-hundred-year history, the Jungfrau Railway and the Jungfraujoch have developed into a tourist magnet. Today, some 750,000 people visit Europe's highest-altitude railway station every year of whom more than 60 per cent come from Asia. In March 2012, a 250-metre-long experience round tour was opened, illustrating in artistic fashion the history of the Jungfrau Railway and the development of tourism in Switzerland. The Jungfrau Railway will also present its centenary at the Olympic Games in London and the World Exhibition in Yeosu.
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