Giessbach Funicular

The funicular was built in 1879 to connect the Grandhotel Giessbach with the passenger-boat stage below it on Lake Brienz. The hotel and funicular were developed by Carl Hauser amid the Giessbach waterfalls and woodland. The funicular was designed at 1000mm-gauge by the Swiss engineer Carl Roman Abt, the inventor of central passing places to avoid the need for double tracks. It was made by Niklaus Riggenbach of the Internationalen Gesellschaft für Bergbahnen (International Mountain Railway Company) at Aarau. About 40 passengers at a time are lifted 98m over a route of 345m that included five elegant steel-truss bridges to cross ravines. The cars were powered by the weight of water in a tank, later changed to a turbine and then an electric motor. The passing place and cars were redesigned in 1891. After the hotel closed in 1979, both the the building and the funicular were bought by the Helvetia Nostra trust. Visitors can buy a ticket for the funicular or ride free if they are guests.