Borne de visée du tunnel inachevé de Saint-Maurice-Sur-Moselle

This sighting post or "pilier de direction" was used to align the axis of the West Head of the "Tunnel Ferroviaire" Saint-Maurice sur Moselle Urbès, also known as the Souterrain du Col de Bussang or Percée des Vosges. Work began in October 1932 and was abruptly halted at the end of 1935 for reasons that remain somewhat obscure, even though it was due to be completed in 1937 and around 30% of the work had been completed! The project included a double-track straight tunnel 8,287 meters long, the longest in France at the time. At Saint-Maurice, only 300 meters of base tunnel were built. In addition to the tunnel, there were 4,636 meters of open track, including several engineering structures. On the Alsatian side, a viaduct was built in 1933 / 1934; at Urbès, the tunnel entrance was masked by an imposing bunker built by the Nazis in 1944, when they had turned the "tunnel" into a labor camp.