Grossglockner High Alpine Road
| Grossglockner High Alpine Road Hochtor Pass |
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| Elevation | 2,504 m (8,215 ft) |
| Traversed by | Road/tunnel |
| Location | Austria |
| Range | Hohe Tauern |
| Coordinates | 47°05′00″N 12°50′34″E / 47.08333°N 12.84278°ECoordinates: 47°05′00″N 12°50′34″E / 47.08333°N 12.84278°E |
 Hochtor Pass
Location of Hochtor Pass
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The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (in German Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße) is the highest surfaced mountain pass road in Austria. It connects Bruck in the state of Salzburg with Heiligenblut in Carinthia via Fuscher Törl and Hochtor Pass at 2,504 m (8,215 ft). The road is named after the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain. Built as a scenic route, a toll is assessed for passage.
The road leads from Bruck in the Salzach Valley via the northern toll both at Ferleiten (near Fusch) with numbered hairpin curves up to Hochtor Pass, with a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) branch-off from Fuscher Törl at 2,428 m (7,966 ft) to the Edelweißspitze viewpoint. The scenic route crosses the Alpine divide in a tunnel and runs southwards passing another branch-off which leads to the Glocknerhaus mountain hut and the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe visitors' centre at 2,369 m (7,772 ft).
The popular overlook was named after a visit by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and his consort Elisabeth in 1856. It offers a panoramic view over the Pasterze Glacier, the Grossglockner massif, the Glocknerwand, and the Johannisberg in the northwest. From here the road runs downhill to the southern toll booth near Heiligenblut.
When, in 1924, a group of Austrian experts presented a plan for a road over the Hochtor (the high pass), they were ridiculed in a time when in Austria, Germany, and Italy there were only 154,000 private automobiles, 92,000 motorcycles, and 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) of long-distance asphalt roads. Austria had suffered from the catastrophic economic results of losing the First World War, had shrunk to a seventh of its imperial size, lost its international markets and suffered devastating inflation.
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