On October 19, 1869, the first train entered Monaco station
It was awful weather. October 19, 1868 was a day not to set foot outside. It was raining worms. However, this day marked the history of Monaco. An event took place there, which would change the tourist and commercial future of the Principality: the arrival of the first passenger train.
From now on, the Principality of Monaco would be opened up. Visitors, tourists, traders, businessmen, gamers can come there. The Principality was going to be able to enrich itself, prosper and grow.
It was 8:35 in the morning when, despite the bad weather, we saw the plume of smoke from the locomotive growing from afar. With a heavy heart, the panting noise of the machine was heard approaching.
A considerable victory for the future
We saw arriving with the wagons she was towing. She stops the train along the platform of the small station in a metallic noise of braking wheels and in a strident exhaust of jets of steam. Years of negotiations, work, hopes and renouncements come to an end.
The train was finally here. It was a huge victory for the future. The first travelers got off. Others followed during the day. There were exactly 346 on the first day, according to the Monaco Journal which, of course, made much of the event: “The trains, stormed at the Nice station, drop off crowds of visitors four times a day at Monaco station, brought much less perhaps by the attraction of the already well-known country, than attracted by desire. to be the first to take this picturesque route, which the genius of man has so difficultly conquered on abrupt ground, strewn with obstacles which at first glance may have seemed insurmountable. “
The fare from Nice was 4.80 francs in first class, 4.35 francs in second class, 1 franc in third. Because there were three classes at the time.
It had taken years of discussion and work to get there. It also required a complicity between the Emperor of the French Napoleon III and the Prince of Monaco Charles III. If this complicity had not existed, the railway would have passed away from the Principality and would have left Monaco in its isolation as a small port.
A masterful line
Work on the line between Nice and Monaco lasted four years. Four years of digging rocks, building bridges, making tunnels, raising retaining walls.
Comment from Nice Journal: “The distance is 15 kilometers and a half but nowhere, certainly, it is given to see, in such a narrow space, accumulated so many challenges and rebellions of nature, and so many works which by their size and their audacity more proudly attests to the power of man to overcome obstacles. There is no such masterful railway line in France as that of Paris to the border with Italy. “
The reporter from Monaco Journal a trip made: “The new route from Nice to Monaco unrolls its double ribbon of rails at the foot of the last foundations of the Maritime Alps, by the sea, among gardens of lemon and orange trees, woods of carob trees, olive trees, and Sometimes – it is often it should be said – the mountain falls steeply into the sea and seems to want to bar the passage of the train, but the locomotive makes a long gap in the mountain. “
Goodbye Grande Corniche?
The journalist believes that the use of the Grande Corniche will fall into disuse: “From now on all travelers who go to Italy will abandon the Corniche road to go through Monaco. Many cars, omnibuses, stagecoaches, couriers, will circulate on the roads of the Principality and give this country a life, an unknown animation. until this day.” The abandonment of the Grande Corniche is also mentioned by the Journal de Nice: “Goodbye, superb road of the Corniche; your fame will disappear; we will no longer climb your gigantic escarpments, which threaten the clouds and where you unwind to find yourself. rush towards the abyss with your vertiginous meanders! “
But the Monaco Journal continue to trust another means of transport: the boat. The one that connects Monaco to Nice is called Charles III: “The Charles III does not stop the service it provided between the port of Nice and that of Monaco. It is always available to tourists curious to rub shoulders with this enchanting coastline all jagged with gulfs and promontories; only this service is modified: the Charles III will leave Nice at 11 o’clock in the morning and Monaco at 7:30 in the evening. “
By going down to the station platform on October 19, 1868, the first travelers took a small step for man and a big step for the Principality …
Technical data
the Nice Journal of October 20 gives the technical details of the rail link between Nice and Monaco: “Over this distance of approximately 16 kilometers, we had to drill eleven tunnels: Cimiez 600 meters, Villefranche, 4500, Malrive 65, Cap Roux 420, Cabeel 500, les Piastres 65, Saint-Laurent 540, Mala 70, Rogneux 215, la Battery 495, Customs 100.
Thus, more than four and a half kilometers had to be established underground in limestone rocks. Besides these considerable works, other no less important had to be carried out at the gates and between each tunnel to support the causeways, rising from 12 to 25 meters above the sea.
Also considerable retaining walls had to be built at various points, including Villefranche, Èze, Isoletta, Gardia, Pissarelles, Rogneux, Battery and Fontvieille. Many bridges and aqueducts for the flow of water were also built “.