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Under the bridge 

Bohinj Line

The Bohinj Line is 144 kilometres long and is a remarkable feat of engineering from the early twentieth century. Vintgar Gorge is crossed by the largest fully preserved single-arch stone railway bridge in Slovenia. 

Audio guide
Interesting facts

What you can see at this point

If you look up, you’ll see a giant stone bridge high above the Radovna.  

It is not an illusion, but the largest fully preserved single-arch stone railway bridge in Slovenia, with a span of 41 metres. It is more than a century old. It was built as part of the famous Bohinj Line, one of the most beautiful railway lines in Europe, connecting Alpine Jesenice with Mediterranean Gorizia. The railway line leads directly into a tunnel beneath Hom hill.  

Building the tunnel represented a major engineering challenge. It was only possible to tunnel into the hill from one side. The builders cut into an underground stream of water while building the tunnel, with the result that even today water trickles from its walls, creating a stream that flows through a stone channel past the railway station and into a meadow. 

The Bohinj Line is 144 kilometres long and is a remarkable feat of engineering from the early twentieth century. It connected central Europe to the sea via the Alps. Because it covers extremely difficult terrain, it has many tunnels and bridges. In its day this line was a busy trade route, with up to 70 trains a day running along it from Vienna to the port in Trieste.  

If you look around, you will see a dam with a reservoir. This serves the Vintgar hydropower plant, the oldest operational hydropower plant in Slovenia. It was built in 1903 when additional electric power was needed to construct the Karavanke railway tunnel and the Bohinj Line. It still operates today.  

Continue onward, and soon you will hear an even louder rush of water, announcing the majestic sight of the waterfall at the end of the gorge. The Slovene word for this rushing, roaring sound is šum, and this is the origin of the name Šum Fall.