Workers of France and Italy finished building the Frejus Tunnel in
1871.
BUILDING A TUNNEL
You can dig a little tunnel with your hands, or with a spoon, or with a
shovel. But how would you dig a tunnel through a mountain?
The Frejus Tunnel is a railroad tunnel through the Alps. It connects
France and Italy. It was the first tunnel ever built through
It was built across the River Thames in London and lasted for more than
600 years.
the Alps. People could not get over the Alps by railroad, so the
governments of France and Italy decided to build a tunnel.
Two groups of men worked on the tunnel. One group started working in
France. The other group started working in Italy. For the first time,
men used a new drill called a power drill. They used it to make small
holes in the mountain. The men filled the small holes with gunpowder and
lit a fuse. The gunpowder blasted big holes in the mountain. Then the
men dug out the rocks and started to drill again.
It took fourteen years, from 1857 to 1871, for the workers from France
and Italy to meet. But when they did, the first tunnel through the Alps
was finished.
Now people can travel by train from France to Italy and from Italy to
France through the Frejus Tunnel.
Trains travel between Italy and France through the Frejus Tunnel.
