After 7.5 years of construction work the Gotthard Tunnel neared its breakthrough. Swiss newspaper articles tried to capture the shivers of anticipation. The northern- Swiss liberal Schaffhauser Intelligenzblatt published a little poem on February 24, 1880. The

Only four days later – not a week – the probe broke through the dividing tunnel wall. The next day, Sunday February 29, 1880, the Gotthard Railway Company orchestrated the ‘official’ breakthrough in the presence of journalists, high-ranking engineers and officials. The Gotthard Railway Company organised festivities mainly for the people directly involved in the construction work. The party gathered in the narrow tunnel to witness the workers drilling through the thin wall that still divided the southern and the northern headings. Around eleven o’clock, the two tunnel engineers in charge of the north and south side, Ernst Stockalper and Eduardo Bossi, embraced each other through the breach. The invited crowd followed their example and stepped over the threshold to celebrate the event. Tunnel inspector Kauffmann held a speech in the cramped and warm tunnel heading. In Göschenen, the telegraph service worked overtime to announce officially the news to the world. The Gotthard Railway Company distributed commemoration medals to the workers and it treated the officials and chief engineers the Gotthard Railway Company to a banquet in the machine hall of Airolo.

More than two years later, the formal inauguration of the complete Gotthard Railway took place. The inaugural festivities had an official and international character that exuded an atmosphere of well-staged lustre. A week before the railways would open for passengers, high officials from the three involved states, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, gathered to Lucerne to attend the festivities. The settings chosen for the festivities mirror the importance the organisers attached to the opening of the international railway line. Dozens of journalists received invitations. For days, the Swiss newspapers filled their front pages with reports and commentaries. Dignitaries held numerous speeches, knowing that the organisation had notified the press well in advance.