opened, and in 1856 a telegraph cable was laid across the lake. The rail line (rail ferry) from Lindau to Romanshorn opened in 1869, was expanded in 1945 and in 1976 was replaced by car ferries. Between 1869 and 1871, the Northeastern Railway line Rorschach-Romanshorn-Constance opened. Then, in 1910 a railway line to St. Gallen was added.
Romanshorn's strategic position after 1850 attracted commercial and industrial businesses. The Fatzer company, founded in 1836, initially produced cords and ropes. In 1895 it moved to the cable production. By 1985, the company produced 2,000 tonnes of steel wire and had 85 employees. From the pharmacy of Max Zeller, which opened in 1864 and sold the famous Zeller balm, the company Max Zeller & Sons developed. In 2008, this pharmaceutical company employed just under 100 employees. Opened in 1892, by 1980 the Swiss Alcohol Board possessed a capacity of 30 million liters of alcohol. In 1904, the Voigt Pharmaceutical company was founded in Romanshorn, which grew to be a world-wide pharmaceutical shipping company, and employ about 250 people in 2008. Other well-known companies include Biro (Plastics), the engineering Hydrel (including hydraulic, pneumatic) and the Asco Kohlens�ure AG.
On 30 August 1912 an ex-soldier and local resident named Hermann Schwarz went on a shooting spree that left seven people dead and several others wounded. After the shooting he was examined by several psychiatrists and was found to suffer from mental illness, resulting in his acquittal due to insanity. He was ordered to be institutionalized for the rest of his life
