The first railway in the region, the Milan–Monza line, was opened in 1840. The second line, opened in 1842, was the first section of the Milan–Venice line, fully completed in 1857. By that time railways were proliferating even in the Piedmont; in 1859 when Austria declared war on Sardinia the Piedmontese and Austrian networks had come close to the point where the bridge over the Ticino River was subsequently built connecting Turin and Milan.