BERN, Switzerland, the capital of the can ton of the same name (see above) and of the whole confederation since 1848, situated on an elevated rocky peninsula, washed on three sides by the Aar, which is crossed by several bridges, including the handsome Nydeck Bridge, the huge iron Kirchenfeld Bridge and the Korn haus Bridge (opened in 1898), with a roadway 160 feet above the Aar and a principal arch of 380 feet span. The streets are, for the greater part, straight, wide and well paved; and the houses, partly provided with piazzas, are sub stantially built of stone. The streets are puri fied by rills of water and adorned with foun tains. The city gets water for its drinking sup ply and for the motive power of its electric plants by means of a dam 1,000 feet long across the Aar. Among the public buildings are the great Gothic cathedral 1421-1573; the Church of the Holy Spirit; the University; the hall of the Swiss Federal Council; the art museum, containing the municipal picture gallery; a hos pital; the town-house, a Gothic edifice of the 15th century, restored 1868; the mint, corn hall, historical and archaeological museum; the nat ural history museum; observatory; deaf-and dumb institution; infirmary; orphan and luna tic asylums. The public library possesses great treasures of printed books and manuscripts. Trade and commerce are lively; the manufac tures consist of woolens, cottons, silks, machin ery, chocolate, scientific instruments, etc. It
has two great annual fairs and a large cattle and horse market. There are street railroads with compressed air and electricity as motive power. Steam roads run to the suburbs. At Bern is located the central office of the Inter national Postal Union. The city was founded in 1191 and in 1218 the German Emperor Fred erick II declared it a free city of the empire and confirmed its privileges by a charter, which is still preserved. In 1353 it entered into the Helvetic Confederacy. The government of the town from early times was democratic but in the 16th century a tendency toward aristocratic domination set in. The invasion by the French in 1798 overthrew the aristocratic regime. The struggle between Liberals and Conservatives during the 19th century resulted in victory for the Liberals. The Constitution was repeatedly revised in a democratic sense and after 1870 the referendum was developed with great com pleteness. In 1405 the greater part of the city was destroyed by fire, but it was afterward regularly rebuilt. The bear, as the heraldic emblem of Bern, figures frequently in a sculp tured form; and a number of these animals in the flesh are kept at the cost of the municipal ity. There is a curious clock-tower containing mechanism by which the striking of the hours is heralded by the crowing of a cock and a procession of bears. Pop. (1910) 85,264.