"We are not a very emotional people, but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional."
October 15, 2010
Swiss officials declared a day of joy Friday as residents of the Alpine nation celebrated the breakthrough moment for the world's longest tunnel — a project 60 years in the making.
A gigantic drilling machine chewed through the remaining 8,200 feet separating the two ends of the 35.4-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel in central Switzerland.
The tunnel is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe. 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 the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
"It's a day of joy for Switzerland," Peter Fueglistaler, director of Switzerland's Federal Office of Transport, said earlier. "We are not a very emotional people, but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional."
Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the towering Gotthard massif, including the 8,200-foot Piz Vatgira
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