Swiss Engineers build the Longest Tunnel
They smashed through the last stretch of rock Friday to create the world's longest tunnel. This project that has been 60 years in the making.
A gigantic drilling machine broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif several minutes ahead of schedule Friday afternoon.
Trumpets sounded, cheers reverberated and even burly workers wiped away tears as foreman Eduard Baer lifted a statue of Saint Barbara — the patron saint of miners — through a small hole in the enormous drilling machine thousands of feet (meters) underground in central Switzerland.
At that moment, a 35.4-mile (57-kilometer) tunnel was born, and the Alpine nation reclaimed the record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel.
Television stations across Europe showed the event live. See the video:
[video=youtube;FM5NsPF8qpY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM5NsPF8qpY[/video]
First conceived in 1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly on the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
The tunnel also aims to reduce the damage that heavy trucks are inflicting on Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.
Now THIS is real engineering. BIG & AWESOME
A gigantic drilling machine broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif several minutes ahead of schedule Friday afternoon.
Trumpets sounded, cheers reverberated and even burly workers wiped away tears as foreman Eduard Baer lifted a statue of Saint Barbara — the patron saint of miners — through a small hole in the enormous drilling machine thousands of feet (meters) underground in central Switzerland.
At that moment, a 35.4-mile (57-kilometer) tunnel was born, and the Alpine nation reclaimed the record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel.
Television stations across Europe showed the event live. See the video:
[video=youtube;FM5NsPF8qpY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM5NsPF8qpY[/video]
First conceived in 1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly on the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
The tunnel also aims to reduce the damage that heavy trucks are inflicting on Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.
Now THIS is real engineering. BIG & AWESOME
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