The crookedest railway in the world
ordinary method of ascending by railway to high altitudes is to curve the line about in all directions, lengthening the mileage so as to keep the gradients within reason, though necessarily the length of such a line is quite disproportionate to the horizontal distance travelled. Lines of this character are very common in Alpine, Rocky Mountain, Himalayan, and other mountain districts. Thus, on the St Gothard Railway in Switzerland, before reaching the principal tunnel, a train travels in all directions, passing under the line that it has previously traversed in places, and traversing three spiral tunnels, two of which are nearly complete circles, while the other is a completed loop. And
