Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1895 — FROWNING JUNGFRAU NO LONGER A TERROR TO TOURISTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROWNING JUNGFRAU NO LONGER A TERROR TO TOURISTS.

A RAILROAD to the summit of the Jungfrau! A fond farewell to hazardous Alpine climbing. A long good-by to alpenstocks, guides, and all other necessities for scaling the dizzy heights. After a long and heated debate the Swiss Government has given a syndicate permission to construct a railway over the Wengeralps. The object of the railroad company is to make the highest point, the Jungfrau, its terminal station. When completed it will be one of the most daring feats of engineering of this country. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles will have to be conquered, stretches of glaciers traversed, fathomless chasms have to be bridged, and the rock tunneled in all directions. This new road will be of a different pattern from the many varieties of climbing railways now used in Switzerland. The probability is that it will be modeled on the same lines as the electrical mountain railway on Mount Saleve in Geneva. There will, however, be a'distinct difference, insomuch as the new road will be operated both by elec-

tricity and by steam, should occasion so require. The electricity will be developed by hydraulic power and conveyed to whatever distance necessary. It will also preserve the feature of cogwheels gripping a center rail now used iq ascending very steep heights. The name of the new road will be the Lauterbrunnen-Wen-geralp-Grindelwald Railway. The powerhouses will be located at the Lauterbrunnen, where also will be an up-to-date passenger station. will be five other stations on the line: Scheidegg, Ribibach, Grindelwald, Monch, and the terminal one, the Jungfrau. All these stations will be unlike anything heretofore used for the accommodation of passengers. They will be all blasted out of the solid rock and form a part of the tunnel system used on this road. Each station will be fitted up in accordance to the demand of the times, and, though of course on a miniature scale, be provided with every convenience. There will be a well supplied restaurant, the little bedrooms will be like the cabins on the American lines, and a profusion of electric lights will make

things cheerful. A number of good-sized port-holes, through which the passengers may have a fine view of the mountain peaks and the glaciers, will also be cut through the rock. Carefully constructed paths for pedestrians wantffig"tti climb the are found around"nll the station's.' • The road is nearly nine miles long and rises to a height of about 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. The cave of tlje Jungfrau Mountain will be pierced by a shaft communicating with the station immediately below. This shaft will be provided with a passenger elevator worked by a dynamo, which in its turn derives its power from a hydraulic motor utilizing the waters of Lake Luchlnen. Within the tube or shaft is a winding staircase for the use of those not caring to patronize the elevator. The shaft terminates in a tower, from which the visitors can gaze on the world which lies 18,736 feet below where they stand. The railway coaches will be heated by electricity and all stations are connected by telegraph and telephone with the world below.