The photographs in this collection were taken between 1912 and 1916 during the construction of the Hauenstein railway tunnel. They're part of the extensive photo archive of the Heritage Foundation SBB (SBB Historic).
The Hauenstein base tunnel connects the City of Basel with the economic centers Zurich, Lucerne and Berne via Olten and is part of the north-south axis freight transport route through Switzerland. The route through the 1916 base tunnel succeeded the prior main line Sissach - Olten (trough the Hauenstein-summit tunnel) built by the "Schweizerische Centralbahn" in 1858.
Most likely the photos were comissioned by the SBB Kreis II. Recurring motifs are tunnel workers, the construction site in front of the portals and the surroundings, e.g. the workers' settlement Tripolis on the territory of the municipality Trimbach.
The glass plate negatives were digitized in 2015.
