Swiss engineers have smashed through the last stretch of rock to create the longest tunnel in the world. A gigantic drilling machine broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet (2,500 metres) below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif. Miners, VIPs and journalists inside the tunnel cheered as Switzerland reclaimed the longest tunnel record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel. Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the Gotthard massif. When the tunnel opens in 2017, it will allow passenger and goods trains to pass underneath the Alps at speeds of up to 155 miles an hour (250 kilometres an hour) on their way from Germany to Italy.