AT a height of 11,340 feet above sea level, in a chamber blasted from the rock of the Jungfrau, one of the highest mountains in the Bernese Oberland, engineers have built a telephone exchange, from which it is possible to communicate with other subscribers all over the world.
LAYING THE CABLE near Wengernalp, among the foothills of the Jungfrau. The telephone cable was laid from Lauterbrunnen, in the main valley, through Wengernalp to Jungfraujoch, a ridge of the Jungfrau more than 11,000 feet above sea level. This is the terminus of the electric mountain railway which runs from Scheidegg through long, inclined tunnels in the precipitous face of the mountain. The telephone cable is nine and a half miles long.
CABLES AND MATERIAL were transported from Lauterbrunnen on the Wengernalp Railway to Scheidegg, the Junction for the railway to Jungfraujoch. The Wengernalp Railway is built on the rack-rail system. Electric locomotives are used, drawing electricity from overhead conductors.
ON THE FACE OF A PRECIPICE are built the terminus of the Jungfraujoch Railway and the hotel served by Europe’s highest telephone exchange (above left). The exchange is designed to communicate with a well-known climber’s hut, the Concordia Hut, on the Aletsch Glacier, which is thus linked with telephone subscribers all over the world.
