Caribbean. Caracas, with its unique topographical situation has contributed significantly to its development, is located on the mountains of the coast 17 km south of La Guaira and the Caribbean Sea, on whose level exceeds about 936 metres. Two thousand workers and over 200 bulldozers, tractors, and trucks worked feverishly to finish the work in time for the Tenth Inter-American Conference of Foreign Ministers, which was to take place in Caracas during the first quarter of 1954. Along with the many Venezuelan workers who worked in the three viaducts were a group of 300 men including immigrant Italians, Germans, Austrians, and Slavs who arrived not long ago to Venezuela (all this by the doctrine of General Pérez Jiménez, who encouraged and supported the immigration to the Venezuelan Nation). The highway was praised by the international media. The United States's gag reel newscast, Movietone News, dedicated a report on the highway. Tunnels and viaducts The two highway tunnels were built at a cost of approximately $20,000,000 for the only other foreign company that participated in the project. The company is the Morrison Knudsen Company Inc. of Boise, Idaho, United States. Each tunnel is actually a set of twin tubes separated by a natural wall of about 12 metres wide, with two lanes of traffic in one direction on each side. The first Boqueron tunnel measures . The second Boqueron Tunnel measures The tunnels were designed by Ralph Smillie, head of a consulting engineering company in the city of New York, according to the strictest safety specifications and the most advanced methods in this type of construction for the time. The tunnels have a modern ventilation system that automatically regulates the entry of fresh air in proportion to the concentration of carbon monoxide expelled by motor vehicles. A tunnel along the greater length of 1,780 meters, two galleries were built vertical sites about one-third the length of the underpass. These galleries are raised tunnel about 37 m to the surface of the mountain, and are used to inject fresh air and expel combustion gases coming out of cars that travel. In addition to more efficient lighting that existed at the time, the tunnels have a modern system for regulating traffic in case of occurrence of any emergency, as well as a variety of apparatus for firefighting. At the north end of the tunnel will be built a smaller building to house the