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Many other things at the Asmara station are still as
they were at the time, when Seium and Abraha-Giulio were boys, when Eritrea
was “the first-born italian colony” and the Massaua-Asmara railway, built
by italian soldiers between 1897 and 1911 was defined by the international
press, so critical and suspicious toward the late italian colonial policy,
“an astonishing exploit”, “an engineering miracle”.
Along the 117 km of the line, in order to climb from the
Red Sea to the 2400 meters of the Asmara plateau, the italian civil engineers
had to place 64 bridges and viaducts and 30 tunnels. An epic enterprise
to be finished at all costs: “At all costs”, as used to say the italian
soldiers who were laying the rails on breath-taking drops and as
it can be read still today, proudly engraved under the arch of one of the
bridges. |
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