The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking Italy and France opens.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel in Europe, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via European route E25, in particular the motorway from Geneva A40 of France to Turin A5 of Italy. The passageway is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres 30 miles and to Milan by 100 km 60 mi. Northeast of Mont Blanc’s summit, the tunnel is about 15 km 10 mi southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent.

Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the tunnel is 11.611 km 7.215 mi in length, 8.6 m 28 ft in width, and 4.35 m 14.3 ft in height. The passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted “V”, which assists ventilation. The entrance elevation on the French side 45°54?05?N 006°51?39?E is 1,274 m 4,180 ft and 1,381 m 4,531 ft in Italy 45°49?04?N 006°57?07?E, with a maximum of 1,395 m 4,577 ft near the center, a maximum difference of 121 m 397 ft. The tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. At the time of its construction, it tripled the length of any existing highway tunnel.

The tunnel passes almost exactly under the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. At this spot, it lies 2480m beneath the surface, making it the world’s second deepest operational tunnel after the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is slightly deeper.

Plans to widen the tunnel were never implemented because of lack of financing and fierce opposition of local residents who objected to the harmful effects of increased heavy traffic.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by two public companies, each managing half of the tunnel.