Official opening

Think back 120 years and envision the 15 000 workers who dug, chipped and blasted their way through the rock hard mountains, over the sides of the steep valleys and through cascading rivers and rapids. Norway was undergoing huge change at the end of the 1800s. The industrial revolution had reached Norway and factories were springing up, especially around rivers and waterfalls. In those days, sea freight was the obvious mode of transportation for both goods and people. As there were no road or rail connections between the bigger towns in the east and west, boat was the only option and the trip from Bergen to Oslo took 3 and a half days. When the Bergen line was built it required careful planning and capital and there was a big conflict of interest between the two sides of the country regarding the choice of route. Finally, parliament chose the route that the line follows today in 1894 and on its completion in 1909, 40 years had passed since the idea was first put forward. The price tag was over 52 million Kroner, as much as the whole state budget at the time. The Bergen line was officially opened in Voss on the 27th November 1909 by King Haakon VII. Although, by then there had already been traffic on part or all of the line for many years. King Haakon VII stated “this was the masterpiece of the generation” with clear reference to the hard work that had been put in to build the line over rivers and lakes, and both through and over high mountains.