Simplon

Simplon (Ital. Sempione), a mountain-pass (6594 feet high) of Switzerland. The Simplon Road, leading over a shoulder of the mountain from Brieg in Valais to Domo d'Ossola (41 miles) in Piedmont, was commenced in 1800 by Napoleon, and completed in 1806 at a cost of £720,000. It is carried across more than six hundred bridges, over numerous galleries cut out of the natural rock or built of solid masonry, and through great tunnels. Close to the highest point is the New Hospice (opened in 1825), one of the twenty edifices on this route for the shelter of travellers. After much preliminary negotiation, the convention between Italy and Switzerland for the construction of a railway tunnel through the Simplon was finally approved at Rome and Berne in December 1896. There will be two parallel tunnels, 12½ miles long, about 60 feet apart, with connections every 670 feet. The height above the sea will only be 2312 feet. The Swiss terminus will be at Brieg, and the Italian end at Iselle. Operations were commenced from both ends in August 1898; it is estimated to take 5½ years to construct, and to cost £2,800,000.