At the dawn of the 20th century, electric vehicles were enjoying a golden age. And Switzerland’s contributions to e-mobility received worldwide attention.

In Roman times, major urban centres such as Vitudurum (Oberwinterthur), Aquae Helveticae (Baden) and Vindonissa (Windisch) needed to be fed. Large farming estates in the region played a major role in meeting this need.

On 15 June 1844, a railway train ran on Swiss territory for the first time. The train didn’t go from Baden to Zurich; instead, it ran a distance of about two kilometres from the French border to the city of Basel.

Cycling is booming, thanks to coronavirus and e-bikes. But the height of the cycling craze was in the early decades of the 20th century. Back then, the bicycle ruled the streets, and in fact in 1913 the view in the Federal Parliament was that: “The world today would not be able to manage without the bicycle.”

The Hauenstein base tunnel was opened in January 1916. In the middle of World War I. The story of a trailblazing feat of engineering, achieved in tumultuous times.

In 1853 efforts got under way to ‘break the stone’ that stood between the cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Solothurn. Five years later the Hauenstein, Switzerland’s first real railway tunnel, was opened.

In summer 1955, Switzerland’s first motorway was opened in Lucerne. It was the first piece of the puzzle of what is now the national road network, today covering around 2,254 kilometres.

While there have been huge strides forward in exploring the universe, most of the underwater world is still a dark, closed book. The Piccard family has done significant pioneering work in exploring the bodies of water on our planet. The Mésoscaphe submarine descended into the depths of Lake Geneva and was deployed in the world’s oceans. This icon of engineering skill was one of the star attractions at the 1964 National Exhibition in Lausanne.