File:Lyttelton Tunnel (11196377474).jpg
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Six years’ hard tunnelling through volcanic rock came to fruition as the first passenger train travelled through the tunnel from Christchurch to Lyttelton and back on 9 December 1867. This was one of several “official” openings of the much anticipated tunnel as various milestones were reached. Goods trains had been travelling through the tunnel daily since November, including the first wool train to the port, which was celebrated in a lavish reception aboard the ship “Blue Jacket”. Known affectionately as the Moorhouse Tunnel for the Provincial Superintendent who championed its completion, the Lyttelton Tunnel was something of a geological and engineering triumph. It was the world’s first tunnel through an extinct volcano, and plans of the tunnel and rock specimens were shown at the Paris Exposition of 1867. Work on the tunnel began in 1861, and the men toiled night and day, except Sundays, tunnelling from both ends. They met in the middle in May 1867, and celebrated with a breakfast in the Heathcote Valley and music from the miners’ own brass band. People of the two settlements grew very impatient as the years went by and “…fifty thousand after fifty thousand pounds [were] absorbed in utter darkness…” as the Lyttelton Times thundered on the day it opened, but everyone was impressed and delighted when the first, crowded passenger train entered the tunnel “…silently almost, and smoothly,…” and emerged at the Lyttelton end only six and a half minutes later. The image shown is from the Canterbury Regional Council Collection at Archives New Zealand and shows the Lyttelton end of the tunnel under construction in 1866, [CH519/506]. The document is a letter from the tunnel engineers Holmes and Co. to the Provincial Government stating that the “…men are very anxious to get a gun to fire on completion of the tunnel”, and asking to borrow one “…lying by the riverside at the Government buildings…” [CH287 CP89 ICPS 741/1867]. These items are held in the Christchurch Office of Archives New Zealand. For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ Material from Archives New Zealand |
| Date | |
| Source | Lyttelton Tunnel |
| Author | Archives New Zealand from New Zealand |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Archives New Zealand at https://flickr.com/photos/35759981@N08/11196377474. It was reviewed on 8 September 2016 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
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| current | 21:41, 8 September 2016 | | 3,022 × 1,866 (3.05 MB) | Vanished Account Byeznhpyxeuztibuo (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons |
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