100 years ago
From the 'Spectator', 31 December 1870—The Mont Cenis Tunnel, as it is called, between France and Italy, was 'completed', that is, cut through, on Saturday. It is really a railway tunnel under Mount Tabor, 7} miles long, with a gradient of only 1 in 120. The tunnel was commenced twelve years ago, has been carried on ever since, and has been exclusively in the hands of Italian engineers on both sides of the Alps, who have devised and per- fected the unique machinery by which the boring has been effected. No shafts could be sunk and the engineers had to calculate to a nicety the meeting-point of two tunnels driven towards each other from two sides of the mountain, under a hill upwards of 10,000 feet high. The slightest swerve or error in level would have been fatal, but it has been avoided. The work is in the high- est degree creditable even to Italian engineers, though they ranked before as amongst the best in the world,
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