Planning and Construction
With the passing of the law affecting the construction of railways in 1843, the decision was effectively made to build a line from Heilbronn – at that time the final destination for shipping on the river Neckar - to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, the first railway line in Württemberg. The biggest difficulty to the construction was the unfavourable topography, because the Swabian Jura had to be crossed between Geislingen and Ulm. After various options had been investigated and discarded, it was finally decided to build a short, steep ramp at Geislingen: the Geislinger Steige.
The construction of the railway ramp was entrusted to senior engineer (Oberingenieur) Michael Knoll and master builder (Oberbaurat) Karl von Etzel, who had gained experience on the Brennerbahn through (South) Tyrol. Construction begain in 1847 and the ramp was opened in 1850, around 3,000 workers having been employed. Closely linked to the building of the ramp is the firm of WMF (Württemberg Metal Factory) at Geislingen an der Steige.
Read more about this topic: Geislinger Steige
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