SEDRUN, Switzerland  Engineers smashed through a last section of rock Friday to create the world's longest tunnel in the Swiss Alps.

A gigantic drilling machine broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif several minutes ahead of schedule Friday afternoon.

Miners, VIPs and journalists inside the 35.4-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel cheered as Switzerland reclaimed the record from Japan's 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest excluding aqueducts.

Swiss officials had declared a day of joy Friday ahead of the awaited breakthrough moment for the tunnel, a project some 60 years in the making.

It is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe.

The new route will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.

"It's a day of joy for Switzerland," Peter Fueglistaler, director of Switzerland's Federal Office of Transport, said shortly before the tunnel was completed. "We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional."

Two further tunnels one connecting connect Lyons, France, to Turin in Italy, and the other replacing the Brenner road tunnel between Austria and Italy are still a long way from completion.

Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the towering Gotthard massif.

he $10 billion tunnel is due to be opened for rail traffic in 2017 and will let passenger and cargo trains pass underneath the Alps at speeds of up to 155 miles an hour on their way from Germany to Italy.