Ottoman Sultan Abdel Hamid II gave the railway concession to the French however, he also granted a similar deal to the British, who were proposing a rival railroad route to Damascus from a different port, Haifa, where they held influence. The decision to build a railroad between the cities came in the late 1880s along with plans to expand Beirut’s port. In 1863 the French paved a road along the route using macadam, or compacted stone, making possible a one-day journey. Due to the mountains, the journey took three to four days. Though less than 100 kilometers apart on the map, Beirut and Damascus were connected for centuries only by mule paths. Now 93, Namrud is the last living driver of the Beirut-Damascus railroad. Posing alongside his engine in early 1975, train driver Assad Namrud, left, drove his last run the following year.
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