Principal passes of the Alps
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This article lists the principal mountain passes and tunnels in the Alps, and gives a history of transport across the Alps.
Contents |
[edit] Road passes
[edit] Main chain
From west to east:
[edit] Other passes
Detailed lists of passes are given by Alpine subdivision, see the following articles:
- Western Alps
- Eastern Alps
- Northern Limestone Alps
- Central Eastern Alps
- Bergamo Alps
- Rhaetian Alps, including Bernina Range, Livigno Range, Sesvenna Range, Albula Range, Silvretta and Rätikon
- Verwall Alps and Samnaun Alps
- Tyrolean Alps, including Ötztal Alps, Stubai Alps, Kitzbühel Alps, Hohe Tauern and Zillertal Alps
- Niedere Tauern
- Southern Limestone Alps
[edit] Road tunnels
Main chain, from west to east:
| name | location | countries | length (km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunnel de Tende | Tende to Cuneo | F, I | 3.2 |
| Fréjus Road Tunnel | Modane to Susa | F, I | 12.9 |
| Mont Blanc Tunnel | Chamonix to Courmayeur | F, I | 11.6 |
| Great St Bernard Tunnel | Martigny to Aosta | CH, I | 5.9 |
| St. Gotthard Tunnel | Göschenen to Airolo | CH | 17 |
| San Bernardino (road tunnel) | Splügen to Bellinzona | CH | 7.7 |
| Felbertauern tunnel | Mittersill to Lienz | A | 5.3 |
| Tauern tunnel | Eben im Pongau to Sankt Michael im Lungau | A | 6.4 |
[edit] Railroad passes and tunnels
Main chain, from west to east:
| name | type | location | countries | length (km) | elevation (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colle di Cadibona | pass | Savona to Ceva | I | 436 | |
| Tunnel de Tende | tunnel | Tende to Cuneo | F, I | 8.1 | |
| Fréjus Rail Tunnel | tunnel | Modane to Susa | F, I | 13.7 | |
| Simplon tunnel | tunnel | Brig to Domodossola | CH, I | 19.8 | |
| Gotthard Rail Tunnel | tunnel | Göschenen to Airolo | CH | 15 | |
| Bernina Pass | pass | Pontresina to Tirano | CH | 2323 | |
| Brenner Pass | pass | Innsbruck to Brixen-Bressanone | A, I | 1370 | |
| Tauern tunnel | tunnel | Bad Gastein to Obervellach | A | 8.6 | |
| Schoberpass | pass | Liezen to Leoben | A | 849 | |
| Präbichl | pass | Eisenerz to Leoben | A | 1204 | |
| Semmering | pass | Gloggnitz to Mürzzuschlag | A | 965 |
[edit] History
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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Though the Alps form a barrier they have never been an impassable barrier. From earliest days onwards, they have been traversed first, perhaps, for purposes of war or commerce, & later by pilgrims, students and tourists. Places where they were crossed are called passes (this word is sometimes, though rarely, applied to gorges only), and are points at which the alpine chain sinks to form depressions, up to which deep-cut valleys lead from the plains & hilly pre-mountainous zones. Hence the oldest names for such passes are Mont (still retained in cases of Mont Cenis and Monte Moro), for it was many ages before this term was especially applied to peaks of the Alps, which with a few very rare exceptions (e.g. Monte Viso was known to the Romans as Vesulus) were for long just disregarded.
Native inhabitants of the Alps were naturally the first to use the passes. But to the outer world the passes first became known when the Romans crossed them to raid or conquer the region beyond. In the one case we have no direct knowledge (though Romans probably selected passes pointed out to them by the natives as easiest), while in the other we hear almost exclusively of passes across the main chain or the principal passes of the Alps. For obvious reasons, Romans, once having found an "easy" way across the chain, did not trouble to seek for harder and more devious routes. Hence, passes that can be shown as certainly known to them are relatively few in number: they are, in topographical order from west to east, the Col de l'Argentiere, the Col de Montgenèvre, the two St Bernard passes (Great St. Bernard Pass and Little St Bernard Pass), the Splügen Pass, the Septimer Pass, the Brenner Pass, the Radstädter Tauern pass, the Solkscharte pass, the Plocken pass and the Pontebba pass (or Saifnitz pass).
Of these the Montgenèvre and the Brenner were the most frequented, while it will be noticed that in the Central Alps only two passes (the Splügen and the Septimer) were certainly known to the Romans. In fact the central portion of the Alps was by far the least Romanised and least known until the early Middle Ages. Thus the Simplon is first certainly mentioned in 1235, the St Gotthard (without name) in 1236, the Lukmanier in 965, the San Bernardino in 941; of course they may have been known before, but authentic history is silent as regards them till the dates specified. Even the Mont Cenis (from the 15th to the 19th century the favourite pass for travellers going from France to Italy) is first heard of only in 756.
In the 13th century many hitherto unknown passes came into prominence, even some of the easy glacier passes. It should always be borne in mind that in the Western and Central Alps there is but one ridge to cross, to which access is gained by a deep-cut valley, though often it would be shorter to cross a second pass in order to gain the plains, e.g. the Montgenèvre, that is most directly reached by the Col du Lautaret; and the Simplon, which is best gained by one of the lower passes over the western portion of the Bernese Oberland chain. On the other hand, in the Eastern Alps, it is generally necessary to cross three distinct ridges between the northern and southern plains, the Central ridge being the highest and most difficult. Thus the passes which crossed a single ridge, and did not involve too great a detour through a long valley of approach, became the most important and the most popular, e.g. the Mont Cenis, the Great St Bernard, the St Gotthard, the Septimer and the Brenner.
As time went on the travellers (with whatever object) who used the great alpine passes could not put up any longer with the bad old mule paths. A few passes (e.g. the Semmering, the Brenner, the Col de Tende and the Arlberg) can boast of carriage roads constructed before 1800, while those over the Umbrail and the Great St Bernard were not completed till the early years of the 20th century. Most of the carriage roads across the great alpine passes were thus constructed in the 19th century (particularly its first half), largely owing to the impetus given by Napoleon. As late as 1905, the highest pass over the main chain that had a carriage road was the Great St Bernard (8111 feet), but three still higher passes over side ridges have roads -- the Stelvio (9055 feet), the Col du Galibier (8721 feet), in the Dauphiné Alps, and the Umbrail Pass (8242 feet).
Still more recently the main alpine chain has been subjected to the further indignity of having railway lines carried over it or through it – the Brenner and the Pontebba lines being cases of the former, and the Col de Tenda, the Mont Cenis (though the tunnel is really 17 miles to the west), the Simplon and the St Gotthard, not to speak of the side passes of the Arlberg, Albula Pass and Pyhrn of the latter. There are also schemes (more or less advanced) for piercing the Splügen and the Hohe Tauern, both on the main ridge, and the Lotschen Pass, on one of the external ranges. The numerous mountain railways, chiefly in Switzerland, up various peaks (e.g. the Rigi and Pilatus) and over various side passes (e.g. the Brunig and the Little Scheidegg) do not concern us here.
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- Pyatt, E. C. The Passage of the Alps: From Hannibal to the Motorway. London: Robert Hale, 1984.
