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Train to the Clouds
From Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres. at 13000 ft (4000 m), is an engineering
marvel. San Antonio was a stop on the old route for drovers and miners of Chile,
now fading away as modern transportation supplanted pack animals.
The Train to the Clouds (or “Tren a las Nubes” , "Tren del cielo"),
one of the biggest tourist attractions of the province of Salta in the northern
Argentina, crosses 33 bridges, 13 viaducts, 21 tunnels, 2 routes and two zigzags
and has a history of its own, long and zigzagging as its layout. The first studies
were carried out in 1889 and in 1910 the feasibility of the work was demonstrated.
The construction overcome many natural difficulties ( long distances , high
summits, deep gulches ) and the economic setbacks ( construction , maintenance
).
A section was ended in 1931 and later paralyzed for more than a decade .Once
renewed, in 1943 the tract was inaugurated until Salar de Pocitos .Here it is
trafficked by the viaduct La Polvorilla , with a height of 63 m and a curved
longitude of 224 m , it is the finishing point of the Train to the Clouds. The
line was totally inaugurated on February 20th in 1948, when in the passing of
Socompa, it was linked with its Chilean simile that arrives to the port of Antofagasta
in the Pacific Ocean. And a curious fact:, among the workers that contributed
to the construction of the train was Joseph Bróz Tito , the same person
that, years later , transformed into marshal would govern the destinations of
Yugoslavia
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