Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

THE GREAT TUNNELS THROUGH THE ALPS. 159 BRANDT DRILL AT WORK. deed. It was freely asserted that the tunnel could not be finished. For the present all hopes were centred on the And on the workers advancing slowly from Italian Side. , , the Italian side. They too struck a hot spring in gallery No. 1, which soon became untenantable. But gallery No. 2 fortunately ran through sound rock, and was pushed forwards until a cross-cut could be made to the line of No. 1, and that gallery be driven in both directions. Thus the hot spring was taken in the rear, and gallery No. 1 opened up. The last serious obstacle had now been over- come. One Sunday morning the engineers in the northern part of the tunnel The Headings yiear(] tfæ driHs of the Italian meet’ J -D UJI f advance. By the middle oi February 1905 only a few yards remained to be pierced ; and on the 24th, at 6 a.m., the last blast was fired, releasing the hot water ponded up in the abandoned Swiss heading. The Italians had to retire with a haste which precluded the mutual congratulations usual on such an occasion. The last 245 metres of gallery had, on account of the hot springs, taken nearly six months to drive. But when munication had once been established, there was no more delay. On January 25, 1906, the first train passed through the tunnel. Three months later the King of Italy travelled into Switzerland by the new route, and the President of the Swiss Republic returned with him on to Italian soil. One of the world’s greatest engineering enterprises was concluded, and, by a curious coincidence, just a hundred years after the opening of the Simplon road, which also had been a wonder through com- The First Train passes through.'