THE ARLBERG TUNNEL. 635 
THE ARLBERG TUNNEL 
The boring of the tunnel through the Arlberg (the Eagle's Mount), a branch 
of the Rhaetian Alps, has been completed. 
The Arlberg Tunnel ranks only after the Mont Cenis and Mount St. Gothard 
tunnels among great modern engineering works of its class in Europe. The ob- 
ject of the new line is to shorten the distance between Western Austria and East- 
ern Switzerland, create a direct trafiSc between the two countries, and render 
them independent of the South German railways over which it has been hereto- 
fore conducted. The new line is divided into two sections — the first running 
from Innsbruck to Landeck, the second from Landeck to Bludenz. The former, 
which is forty-five miles in length, passes along the right bank of the Inn. Its 
construction presents no extraordinary engineering difficulties. The construc- 
tion of the stretch between Landeck and Bludenz has been much more difficult 
and costly. It is a mountain line from first to last. In the Valley of Rosanna 
the gradient is one in forty. The road crosses the Valley of Panznau on a via- 
duct of three arches, each having a span of 197 feet. The length of this stretch 
is thirty-five miles, and the total estimated cost 11,784,000 florins, or $5,892,000. 
At St. Antoine, 1,721 feet above Landeck, is the beginning of the great tun- 
nel on which work has just been completed. The point fixed upon by the Aus- 
trian Government for commencing this work is not the one that was chosen by 
Gen. Nordling, who first surveyed the ground. The tunnel, had his scheme 
been adopted, would have been higher up the mountain, shorter, wide enough 
only for single rails, and, therefore, less expensive than the one finally fixed 
upon. But the Government, believing that the Arlberg Line will some day be 
one of the most important in Europe, decided that it was expedient to provide 
every facility for a great traffic. The gradients were made as easy as possible, 
even though the tunnel should be a little longer, and the line will be double- 
railed throughout its length. 
The work of boring the tunnel began on the Austrian side in June, 1880, 
and in September operations were begun on the Swiss side of the mountain. The 
work proceeded at a speed which affords a striking illustration of the improve- 
ments that have lately been effected in the art of mountain tunneling. The 
Mont Cenis Tunnel was bored at the rate of 3,537 feet a year, the St. Gothard 
at the rate of 5,474 feet, and the Arlberg was pierced at the rate of 7,080 feet a 
year. The Arlberg engineers also profited by the experiences of their prede- 
cessors in the matter of cost, for while the outlay on the Mont Cenis Tunnel was 
$2,000 per running meter — thirty-nine and one-half inches, — and on the St. 
Gothard $1,250, the expense of making the Arlberg did not exceed $750 to the 
meter. In this regard, however, the tunnel last named benefited by its short- 
ness, since the longer the tunnel, other things being equal, the greater is its rela- 
tive cost. 
An interesting experiment was made in the Arlberg Tunnel with a new sort 
V 11-40 
