Wädenswil

Wädenswil, locally often called Wädi or Wädischwil, is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. The population (as of 2013) was about 21,000.

Geography

Wädenswil has an area of 17.4 km² (6.7 sq mi). Of this area, 59.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 29.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).In 1996 housing and buildings made up 20.8% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.4% of the area. As of 2007 24.5% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.

Demographics

Wädenswil has a population (as of 31 December 2014) of 21,189.As of 2007, 20.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.1%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (85.0%), with Italian being second most common ( 3.9%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 1.9%).

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft

The Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft or Lake Zürich Navigation Company (commonly abbreviated to ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zürich.

The company operates services connecting lake-side towns between Zürich and Rapperswil, as well as more tourist oriented cruises and boat services on the Limmat through the centre of the city of Zürich. It is a member of the Zürich Public Transport Network (ZVV) and transports over 1,5 million passengers every year.

The ZSG is a joint stock company with a share capital of 11 million Swiss Francs (CHF). The share capital – one third is in private hands – is divided into 110,000 bearer shares, each with a nominal value of CHF 100.

History

Steam navigation started on Lake Zürich in 1834, when Franz Carl Caspar and Johann Jakob Lämmlin founded a new company (Caspar und Lämmlin, Unternehmer der Dampfschiffahrt auf dem Zürcher- und Walensee) and ordered their first ship from William Fairbairn of Manchester, England. The Minerva entered service the following year. When the cuty fortifications were abolished, the then called Bauschänzli bastion remained intact, and served from 1835 to 1883 as the landing site for the first steamboats on the lake, later provided by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft.