Historical landmark
Lucerne Needle Dam
Hand-set wooden needles spanning the Reuss, still raised and lowered by hand to hold a lake's level.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Lucerne Needle Dam looks closely at one wooden needle, a single piece among one hundred seventy-five that hold back Lake Lucerne where the Reuss River leaves it. It follows the roped crew who still set and pull that timber by hand, decades after the weir first went in, and asks how a nineteenth-century contraption still keeps a modern city dry. Stand at the rail below the Spreuer Bridge and watch the current while you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.