Swiss engineers have smashed through the last stretch of rock to create the longest rail tunnel in the world.
A huge drill broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif.
In 2017 rail journey times between Zurich and Milan are set to be reduced by as much as one-and-a-half hours when the new tunnel 57km (35 miles) long, is opened beneath the Alps.
Since laying the tunnel's preparations in 1996, around 2,500 workers have taken part in building the 10bn Swiss franc (£6.6bn) project, blasting their way through 13m cubic metres of rock in artificially lowered temperatures that still reached 28C.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11553369
