On the other hand, the Simplon tunnel with its twin passages 1 2 'A miles in length, repre sening 24%2 miles of boring, at a depth often exceeding one and one-quarter miles below the surface, required the labor of 1,000 men during a period of about six and one-half years. The Fucino tunnel has a normal cross section 10 feet high by 6 feet wide; with the appliances used in the work of the "Simplon" it could have been easily bored in six months.
Another important European tunnel was completed in 1916 despite the war. It is known as the Rove tunnel and runs from l'Estaque, France, to make way for a canal from Mar seilles to the Rhone River. It is four and one half miles long, 72 feet wide and 47 feet high, and it is wonderful that the French were able to complete it at such a time.
In 1906 work was begun on a tunnel under the Loetschen Pass from Bern to Brig, Switzer land. It is nine miles long and was opened in the summer of 1913. Other long Swiss tunnels are those at COte d'Or begun in 1915, and the Jura tunnel between Munster and Grenchen, the latter five and five-eigths miles.
The only American tunnel previous to 1900 comparable to the transalpine borings already described is the Hoosac tunnel on the line of the Fitchburg Railroad, between Troy, N. Y., and Greenfield, Mass. It is driven through a southern spur of the Green Mountain range, known as Hoosac Mountain, and is 25,037 feet (four and three-fourths) miles in length. Its construction was begun in 1855 and com pleted in 1873, the masonry work requiring several additional years. During this period the work was suspended many times on account of a lack of funds and the natural obstacles en countered. Where the rock is solid, it is 20 feet high and 24 feet wide, but wherever arch ing was necessary these dimensions are some what greater. The work was carried on by four headings, one from each end and two from an intermediate shaft 1,028 feet in depth; modern tunnel boring methods, involving the use of electricity, nitro-glycerine, air compres sors and power rock drills and marking their first introduction in America. It has an ascend ing gradient of 26 4/10 to the mile, is equipped with a double railway track and cost a little less than $11,000,000. Slightly longer is the Rogers Pass tunnel (26,400 feet) on the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. It is 24 by 29 feet, concrete lined. What will be the longest American tun nel is the Continental Divide, being cut under the Rockies for the Denver and Salt Lake Rail road, six and one-half miles in length. The longest up to the date of opening (1909) was the Gunnison in southwestern Colorado, six miles in length.
The lengths of some of the other important mountain tunnels in various parts of the world are as follows: the "Giovi" on the Genoa-Ronco Railway, 8,260 meters (about five and one sixth miles) ; the "Marianopoli," on the railway from Catania to Palermo, in Sicily, 6,840 meters (about four and one-quarter miles); the "Sutro" in Nevada, 6,000 meters (about three and three-fourths miles) ; the HStandridge,n be tween London and Birmingham, 4,970 meters (a little more than three miles) ; the "Nerthe," between Marseilles and Avignon, 4,620 meters (a little more than two and three-fourths miles); the aPracchia Tunnel," on the main railway line between Florence and Bologna, through the Apennines, comprising 52 tunnels with heavy gradients-25 per 1,000 through out, the several tunnels varying in length from 3,000, 6,000 to 9,000 feet, characterized by very poor ventilation, which was finally improved by adopting the Saccardo system, which was here applied practically for the first time. The
"Bilbo" in Italy, 4,240 meters (a little over two and one-half miles); the "Kaiser Wilhelm," on the Moselle Railway, near Kochem, 4,220 me ters (it is the longest tunnel in Germany) ; the "Blaisy," on the railway from Paris to Lyons, 4,100 meters (two and one-half miles); the "Stampede,* on the Northern Pacific Railway, 9,850 feet, and the gCascade," on the Great Northern Railroad, 13,413 feet in length, through the Cascade Mountains in the State of Washington. The construction of the former was begun in 1886 and completed in 1:.:•:; that of the latter covering the period between 1897 and 1900, the cost of each being about $1,250, 000. Both of these tunnels pierce the moun tains at a considerable elevation, about 3,000 feet above sea-level, but are surpassed in this particular, and the technical difficulties of con struction encountered, by those of the trans andean railways, the most notable of which was opened in 1892, on the Peruvian Central Rail way, running from Callao to the Pacific Ocean, thence by way of Lima to Oroya on the eastern slope of the Cordilleras. This line after passing the station Sureo on the Chalappa Viaduct at an elevation of 6,650 feet overcomes the great topographical difficulties of the Matacana Valley and passes through the tunnel, 3,596 feet long, at a height of 15,781 feet above sea-level—an elevation equal to that of Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps—in a region of per petual snow, 104 miles from Callao. Another one, 15,880 feet in length and forming a part of the railway between Buenos Ayres, Argentina and Santiago, Chile, pierces the Andean range at an elevation of 10,500 feet above the sea. In 1910 another transandean tunnel was com pleted, connecting Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres and cutting the mountains at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Australasia has but one remark able tunnel, that at Otira, New Zealand, five miles in length.