Zürich

Limmat River

Zürich, canton, northeastern Switzerland, with an area of 668 sq mi (1,729 sq km), of which about 80 percent is reckoned as productive, including about 195 sq mi of forests. Of the rest, 28 sq mi are occupied by lakes, chiefly Greifen and Pfäffikon and part of Lake Zürich. The terrain consists of shallow river valleys draining northward toward the Rhine and separated by ridges trending northwest to southeast. The most important valley is that of the Linth, which expands into Lake Zürich and is continued as the Limmat. East of the lake, separated by successively higher ridges, are the valleys of the Glatt, which flows through the lake called Greifensee, and the more gorgelike Töss, separated from the Toggenburg (valley) by a ridge along the east boundary that reaches 3,717 ft (1,133 m) at the Hörnli. West of the lake is the valley of the Sihl, bounded farther west by the Albis Range, with Albishorn (3,002 ft) as its highest point.

Historically, the canton represents the territories acquired up to 1803 by its capital, Zürich, which officially ranks as the first to join the Swiss Confederation in 1351. The whole of the lower part of Lake Zürich was added in 1362, and the canton reached the Rhine after the purchase of Winterthur from the Habsburgs in 1467. It now extends from its enclave on the right bank of the Rhine in the German state of Baden-Württemberg to about 8 mi (13 km) south of the Pfäffikon See. The present cantonal constitution dates from 1869.

Although the land is highly cultivated, the canton is essentially a manufacturing area, noted especially for machinery and railway rolling stock; about one-third of the nation’s total machine production is situated in the canton. Silk and cotton weaving are widespread. Zürich and Winterthur are the principal centres, while Uster, east of the Greifensee, and Thalwil, Horgen, and Wädenswil, on the western shore of Lake Zürich, are all industrial towns. Railways run through the valleys, and standard lines and mountain railways radiate in all directions from the city of Zürich. The Limmat Valley (Zürich to Baden) carried the first railway line opened (1847) in Switzerland. The population, the largest of any Swiss canton, is German speaking and predominantly Protestant. Pop. (2007 est.) 1,284,052.