The Simplon Tunnel is a railway tunnel that connects Brig, Switzerland and Domodossola, Italy, through the Alps, but not under Simplon Pass itself. It is straight except for shore curves at either end. It actually consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 20 years apart. The first to be opened is 19,700 meters (64,600 ft) long, the second is 19,824 meters (65,039 ft) long, making it the longest railway tunnel in the world until the opening of the Daishimizu Tunnel in 1982.
Work on the first tube of the Simplon tunnel commenced in 1898. The Italian king Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the president of the National Council of Switzerland Ludwig Forrer opened the tunnel at Brig on 10 May 1906. The builders of the tunnel were Hermann Häustler and Hugo von Kager. Work on the second tube of the tunnel started in 1912 and it was opened in 1921.
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Read more about Simplon Tunnel: History, Facts and Figures, Spiral Tunnel, In Popular Media
Famous quotes containing the word tunnel:
“It is the light
At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
By him looking out somberly at the shower,
The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
You can’t have.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)