Swiss glaciers 1850–2100

A bridge over a new lake

The retreat of the Trift Glacier left a lake where hikers used to walk on ice. A suspension bridge replaced the crossing.

Date2004-06-01
Bridge170 m long
Height100 m

Hikers once reached the Trift hut by crossing the tongue of the Trift Glacier. As the glacier withdrew in the 1990s and early 2000s, a lake, the Triftsee, filled the basin it left behind, and the crossing became impossible.

A suspension bridge was built in 2004 and replaced in 2009. At about 170 m long and 100 m above the water, it is one of the longest and highest pedestrian suspension bridges in the Alps.

The basin is now one of the sites proposed for a new hydropower reservoir.

The glacier foreland and the Triftsee in 2019, with the suspension bridge in the background.
The glacier foreland and the Triftsee in 2019, with the suspension bridge in the background. Mary Leibundgut · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The first Trift bridge, photographed in 2007.
The first Trift bridge, photographed in 2007. Paebi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Glaciers

Sources

Sources

  1. Wikipedia. Trift Bridge. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trift_Bridge
  2. Gemeinsame Erklärung des Runden Tisches Wasserkraft (2021). www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/69601.pdf
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