On 3 August 1811, two seemingly unrelated events took place.
In the Swiss Alps, the Jungfrau was climbed for the first time by the Meyer brothers and two experienced mountain guides. Reaching one of Europe’s great Alpine summits required determination, skill and endurance. At the time, such an ascent was the preserve of only the very few.
On that very same day, Elisha Graves Otis was born in Vermont, USA. Although elevators already existed in simple forms, Otis would later revolutionise vertical travel by inventing the safety mechanism that made passenger lifts practical and trustworthy. His work transformed tall buildings from intimidating staircases into places where anyone could simply press a button and go up.
At first glance these events appear unrelated. One is about conquering a mountain, the other about engineering. Yet both ultimately tell the same story: making ascent easier and more accessible.
A century after the first ascent of the Jungfrau, that idea came full circle. The Jungfrau Railway, completed in 1912, carried ordinary visitors high into the Alps to Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe, then the highest railway station in Europe. From there, an elevator carries visitors to the Sphinx Observatory, where spectacular panoramic views can be enjoyed without the need to climb an Alpine peak.
The first climbers of 1811 could scarcely have imagined that one day thousands of visitors from around the world would reach almost the same lofty environment by train and lift rather than by ice axe and rope.
Sometimes history produces remarkable coincidences. On 3 August 1811, one event celebrated humanity’s ability to climb higher, while the other marked the birth of the man who would help millions of people do exactly the same thing.
Going up, it turns out, has a history.