The Gotthard Tunnel is opened for traffic…

The Gotthard Tunnel is opened for traffic in 1882, operated by the private railway company Gotthardbahn, which runs from Lucerne to Chiasso at the Italian border.

The tunnel, a fifteen-kilometer- (nine mile-) long railway tunnel that forms the summit of the Gotthard Railway in Switzerland, connects Göschenen with Airolo.

Built from 1871 to 1881 as one double-track, standard gauge tunnel, it is the first tunnel through the Gotthard massif.

Construction had been surveyed by the Swiss engineer Louis Favre, who had suffered a fatal heart attack inside the tunnel in 1879.

Construction has been difficult, due to financial, technical and geological issues, the latter leading to the death of around two hundred workers (the exact number is not known) mainly due to water inrushes; many have also been killed by the compressed air-driven trains carrying excavated material out of the tunnel.

There were also serious health issues caused by an epidemic of hookworm infection.

A strike of the workers in 1875 had been crushed by the Swiss Army, killing four and wounding thirten.