Semmering Railway

Railways were still young when engineers under Carl von Ghega drove a line over the Semmering pass between 1848 and 1854 — 41 kilometres of tunnels and soaring stone viaducts through country many thought impassable by train. The feat opened the mountains to Vienna's holidaymakers, spawning grand hotels and villas along the route, and trains have never stopped running on it. UNESCO inscribed the Semmering Railway in 1998 as a landmark of pioneering civil engineering.