and cars.  The scheme dragged.  Capitalists were slow to invest their money in what they deemed a wild and impracticable undertaking, and even the owners of the land on the Rigi were reluctant for such an experiment to be tried.  But Regenbach persevered, and toward the close of the decade the inhabitants of Vitznau, at the base of the Rigi, were astonished to see gangs of laborers begin the work of making a clearing through the forests on the mountain slope.  They inquired what it meant, and were told that a road up the Rigi was to be made.  The Vitznauers were delighted, for they had no roads, and there was not a wheeled vehicle in the town, nor a highway by which it could be brought thither.  The idea of a railroad in their desolate mountain region, and, above all, a railroad up the Rigi, never entered their heads, and a report which some time after obtained currency in the town, that the laborers were beginning the construction of a railroad, was greeted with a shout of derision.

Nevertheless, that was the beginning of the Rigi line, and in May, 1871, the road was opened for traffic.  It begins at Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne, and extends to the border of the canton and almost to the top of the mountain.  It is 19,000 feet long, and during that distance rises 4,000 feet at an average grade of 1 foot in 4.  Though steep, it is by no means so much so as the Mt.  Washington road, which rises 5,285 feet above the sea, at an average of 1 foot in 3.  There are, however, stretches of the Rigi road at which the grade is about 1 foot in 21/2, which is believed to be the steepest in the world.

The Rigi road has several special features aside from its terrific slopes which entitle it to be considered a triumph of the engineer’s skill.  About midway up the mountains the builders came to a solid mass of rock, which presented a barrier that to a surface road was impassable.  They determined to tunnel it, and, after an enormous expenditure of labor, finished an inclined tunnel 225 feet in length, of the same gradient as the road.  A gorge in the side of the mountain where a small stream, the Schnurtobel, had cut itself a passage also hindered their way, and was crossed by a bridge of lattice girder work in three spans, each 85 feet long.  The entire roadbed, from beginning to end, was cut in the solid rock.  A channel was chiseled out to admit the central beam, which contains the cogs fitting the driving wheel of the locomotive.  The engine is in the rear of the train, and presents the exceedingly curious feature of a boiler greatly inclined, in order that at the steeper gradients it may remain almost perpendicular.  The coal and water are contained in boxes over the driving wheels, so that all the weight of the engine is really concentrated on the cogs—­a precaution to prevent their slipping.  The cost of the road, including three of these strangely constructed locomotives, three passenger coaches, and three open wagons, was $260,000, and it is a good paying investment.  The fare demanded for the trip up the mountains is 5 francs, while half that sum is required for the downward passage, and the road is annually traversed by from 30,000 to 50,000 passengers.