Europe: Easier than Hannibal

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For centuries, the Great St. Bernard Pass was the most popular gateway through the Alpine rampart separating southern and northern Europe. Up its tortuous trails from the Rhone valley climbed tumultuous hordes of Gauls and Germans to sweep down on Italy. And this way, says legend, came Carthaginian Hannibal and his elephants. Climbing the other way, from the beautiful Val d'Aosta, came Caesar's Roman legions intent on conquering tripartite Gaul and planting the legionary eagles on the banks of the Rhine. Nineteen hundred years later, after crushing the Austrians at Marengo, Napoleon and his grenadiers retraced Caesar's path.

Where armies went, peaceful travelers and brigands followed. In summer, crossing the pass was exhausting and dangerous. In winter, only the very skilled or very lucky escaped death in the snow-choked heights, where temperatures dropped to 22° below zero. St. Bernard of Menthon, in the 11th century, founded his famed hospice to offer aid and shelter to weary travelers; only rarely, nowadays, do the monks and their St. Bernard dogs go out in search of lost souls, although some poor Italian emigrants and occasional smugglers may risk their lives after September, when the pass is closed to motor traffic. But one day last week, motorists drove right through the mountain.

After six years of labor by 500 men, and at a cost of 17 lives and $35 million, a two-lane tunnel has been driven 3.6 miles through the rock. On the Swiss side, a 3.4-mile covered access road is lifted to the tunnel mouth by graceful concrete pylons. On the Italian side, another such road, pyloned and covered (for protection against snow and landslides) moves 6.4 miles in graceful hairpin turns down to St. Rhémy. Motorists have the impression of driving along an enormous veranda with breath-taking views of the Aosta valley, 1,000 ft. below.

At the tunnel entrance, Swiss and Italian formalities are handled in a single customs office, and drivers pay the fares, ranging from 90¢ for a motorbike to $18 for a bus. The neon-lit tunnel, 14 ft. 9 in. high, rides over a pipeline that brings oil from Genoa to a Swiss refinery at Collombey. The new St. Bernard, which will be formally inaugurated by the presidents of Italy and Switzerland in June, is the world's longest auto tunnel. But not for long. The Mt. Blanc tunnel of over seven miles from France to Italy will surpass it when it opens for business next year.