Close to the tunnel opening at Amalie Skrams vei in Ssandviken, there is a cultural monument of European dimensions; a rope making works that produced rope and fishing tackle for West and North Norway.
Already at the beginning of the 1870s demands were made that there had to be a railway connection between Bergen and East Norway. The first section between Bergen and Voss was finished in 1883. The route alternatives further on were many: Lærdal-Valdres, Aurland-Geiteryggen, Raundalen-Finse and Ulvik-Finse. Following a long dispute, an agreement was finally reached that the middle route alternative, Raundalen- Myrdal- Finse, was the best alternative. In 1894 the government passed a resolution that the Bergen railway should be built, but only the section Voss-Taugevatn. This was a political gamble in order to make the rest of the country participate in the plans. In 1898 it was approved that the railway be continued eastwards from Taugevatn to Oslo. This high mountain project was one of the most challenging railway projects in Europe. The Bergen railway was to be built across a mountain plateau without roads.
If you enter the farmyard at Rekve, some kilometres from Bulken, where the road departs to Giljarhus, you no longer meet “the miller”, Knut Hernes, in his old rural mill. But some years ago he would wish you welcome, friendly and hospitable, and show you around his mill, which had been his workplace for a generation. As light-footed as a youth he climbed in steep ladders high up into the waterfall, to let the water down on to the waterwheel.
Ygre Station lies hidden away for highway travellers, just below the road Vossevangen-Mjølfjell. The station building at Ygre was constructed at Nesttun station in 1879-80. Almost all the stations at the Voss railway were identical. The architect was Balthazar Lange, and the type was called subsidiary station No.4. It is built in the Swiss style, as fashion of the times demanded.
Opponents of the Bergen Railway used the snow argument for all it was worth. During the debate in Parliament before the decision about the route was reached in 1894, fears of snowfalls of over 20 metres were presented.
When the workers came to Kollsnes to start on the work with the landing for the gas terminal from the Troll field in the North Sea, they found the ruins of an old farm mill at Kvernapollen.
Both the climate and people have been decisive in shaping the bog landscape on Fedje - a landscape that has been evolving over several thousands of years. The peat got built up layer for layer and provided income and fuel for the people of Fedje.
The industrial settlement Bjørsvik