Brenner Autobahn Eastern Alps; this favourable location was therefore suitable for building the first motorway crossing among the Alpine main chains. Unlike other higher passes across the Alps, the Brenner Pass remains open all-year round and through the winter months. Construction of the motorway began in 1959 and the "Brenner Autobahn", including the Bridge of Europe (Europe's highest motorway bridge then), was partially open in 1963. The A13 begins in the south of Innsbruck from the east-west motorway A12 Inntal Autobahn ("Inn Valley Motorway"), which links Bregenz in western Austria to Kufstein near the border of Bavaria in Germany. At above sea,
Brenner Pass in 268 AD, but they were stopped in November of that year at the Battle of Lake Benacus. The Romans kept control over the mountain pass until their end of the empire, in the 5th century. During the High Middle Ages, Brenner Pass was a part of the important "Via Imperii", an imperial road linking the Kingdom of Germany north of the Alps with the Italian March of Verona. In the carolingian "Divisio Regnorum" of 806 the Brenner region is called "per alpes Noricas", the transit through the Noric Alps. Since the 12th century, Brenner Pass was controlled by the