3-034-653 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

North entrance to the Mont Cenis Tunnel: Modane, 1871. Railway tunnel - 3.7 km (8.5 miles) in length - in the European Alps, linking Bardonecchia in Italy to Modane in France. 'The Mont Cenis Tunnel, as it is still called, from Modane, in Savoy, to Bardonnéche, in Piedmont, bored through seven miles and a half thickness of mountain,...by the science and skill of native engineers and the labour of native workmen, since 1857, was formally opened on Sunday week...The first special train, at half-past ten o'clock, conveyed the Italian Ministers of State, the Syndic or Mayor of Turin, and other high official personages, to meet the French Minister of Commerce, M. Victor Lefranc, M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, and other distinguished Frenchmen, at Modane'. The inscription 'V. Emanuele II.' refers to Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.