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Show NEWMOUNTAINROAD Picturesque Austrian Line from Gastcin to Spitnll Finished. Cost Millions to Build snd Open New Country to Tourists Also Is an Important Connecting Connect-ing Link. Vienna. Austria At a cost of fin.-niii.iino fin.-niii.iino the Austrian ministry of railways rail-ways has Just completed bullillng the Tanern railway between Gnstoln In 8al.burg and Hpltlul In Cnrlnthla. The line Is only no miles In length nnd Us enormous cost wis due to the engineering engin-eering difficulties, which Included tho construction of a tunnel O'-x tulles long, costing lii.ooo.oon. For Austria the Tuuorn railway will have great value In opening up n new stretch of country In the home and foreign tourist of surpassing pletur-esqueness. pletur-esqueness. Hut It has ulsn great International In-ternational IniiHirtance. as In conjunction conjunc-tion with three other rallwnys built by the Austrian ministry within the past few years, the Wochclncr, Kara-wunken Kara-wunken and 1'yrhn lines. It forma a new connecting link between central K.urnpc and the Adriatic. This means lower freight rates between (lermnny and tho Mcdllnrrnncun. And It Is not without political significance, loo, as theso lines, making a second route to Trieste, pass through German dis tricts of Austria, whereas the present mnln line to the south runs largely through Italian and Slav districts. The Taitern Is one of the prettiest hits of mountain railway In the Alps, running ns It docs through a magnificent magnifi-cent region of mountains and fertile valleys. It Is specially Interesting from tho engineering standpoint. The Tauern tunnel Is the second longest In Austria and took seven years to build. The work was full of trouble and peril. Water rushed In frequently and the laborers suffered greatly from the In-lit when reaching the center. Thn rock was unusually hard and thn boring process was necessarily slow. A new kind of explosive rock met with for the first time, gave the engineer en-gineer much tremble. The "knnllgcs-teln," "knnllgcs-teln," as It Is called, detached Itself fruiu the sides of thn tunnel without the slightest previous warning, and with a loud report. In great slabs half an Inch thick, causing much alarm among the workmen nnd frequently bruising nnd Injuring them. The building ot the line. In fact, was at the coat of many Uvea. An arnlnnrlie suddenly swept down the mountain aide one morning In March, 19U9, carrying away a workmen's dining din-ing room, where some 60 men were breakfasting at tho lime. Only 11 were saved. The workmen, of whom there were some 3,000, were a very cosmopolitan lot, Italians were the most numerous, numer-ous, but there were also Macedonians, t'roatluns, Albnulana and Hervlana. |