3-052-479 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Completion of the St. Gothard Tunnel: meeting of workmen from the Airolo and Göschenen sides, in centre of tunnel, Sunday morning, Feb. 29, nine A.M., 1880. 'The great work of boring a railway tunnel, nine miles and a quarter long, through the St. Gothard clump of the Alps, from Göschenen, in the Swiss Canton of Uri, to Airolo, on the Italian side...Our Illustration represents the meeting of the two opposite working parties...when they broke through the last intervening piece of rock...The plans were originally prepared by M. Helwag, as chief engineer, and M. Louis Favre was the chief contractor...the work which the honest miners have done [completed in seven years and a half] has been truly heroic; and nobody will grudge them hearty congratulations...at a quarter past eleven the final blasting operations were performed, and after eight separate detonations, the last remnant of the wall of rock dividing the two portions of the tunnel were blown away, and with loud cheers the officials, workmen, and guests who had been waiting on either side, rushed forward and embraced each other...Inspector Kauffmann addressed the assembled crowd with a few warm and hearty words, congratulating them on the accomplishment of the great work'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.