CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1905-04-20

Starting From Opposite Points
Twelve Miles Apart, Bored Toward
Common Center, the Tunnels
Side Walls United Exactly - Over
Two Billion Gallons of Water
H1owed Out.
A Condo (Switzerland) correspondent
Of the Chicago News thus describes the
scene when the great simplon tunnel
was cut through 70 Italy:
Outside the tunnel mouth at Iselle,
near the telephone in the workshop, an
excited crowd had gathered. The la
Dor of six and one-half years was
reaching an end. The Simplon tunnel
was about to be pierced through. There
was babel Of questions, mixture Of
German, French, Italian and English.
How many feet moreT' What's the
news nowY' "Will there be an ecci-
dent2"
Every one knew the danger to be ex-
pected from the suddenly released
mass of water in the north section
when the narrow wall dividing 1t from
the south tunnel should be broken open.
Dams had been erected to break Its
force, and a wooden canal had been
built in the parallel tunnel to receive
It
The strain of a nights vigil was be
ginning to show its effects. With tense
faces engineers. officials and correspond
ents waited. 1t was now 7:30 O'Clock.
A train was ready to take leading en-
gineers and press men into the tunnel
At 8 some one had telephoned that a
material train had been derailed and
ten cars were lying IN a heap. Men
walked restlessly to and fro. impa-
tient at the delay.
Suddenly the telephone bell rang
furiously. Some one jumped for the
receiver. A voice, scarcely audible on
account of the tumult, was shouting In
triumph from far In the interior.
mile or more under the summit of the
mountain.
.Traforo! Traforor c.ThroughrD
Like a flash the news spread. Work
men waved their hats and yelled like
demons. A flag WAS hoisted over one
of the buildings. The locomotive
shrieked discordantly The big steam
siren at the boiler house hooted. The
noise was deafenlng.
There was a rush for the telegraph
office, and then the telephone was be-
sieged with questioners asking for de-
tails. Sulzer, one of the leaders of the
undertaking, and Beissner, chief en-
gineer, were fallen upon by a mob and
congratulated until their arms ached.
last blast had been fired before he and
the others could reach the scene of ac-
ton. In the meantime the locomotive
had been decorated, there was a hur-
ried scramble for places, a few last
words of instructions to the innkeeper
and the train puffed into the Simplon.
Inside the tunnel Engineer Karpf had
taken charge of the last shift at in
the morning. The boring was directed
obliquely upward A miner named
Bedassa, the same man who had drill
ed the very first hole over six years
ago. placed the last dynamite cartridge.
Five hundred yards back were work
men and engineers.
The signal was given. sharp re-
port. n detonation, a gasp for breath.
and then suddenly there sprang from
what had been the solid wall of rock n
flood Of hot, muddy, turbulent water
that rushed down through the gaping
hole and, vaulting madly over the first
dam, turned aside at the second and
third and raced away through the
wooden canal toward the mouth of the
tunnel seven miles away.
Starting from opposite points twelve
miles apart. one in Switzerland and
one In Italy, bored toward common