Claudio Santana / Pool via EPA

An aerial picture shows part of the route of the Arica-La Paz railway during its centennial commemoration, in Chile on May 13, 2013.

One of the world's most remarkable railway lines celebrated its centenary on Monday. The 273-mile track traverses desert and mountain landscapes as it rises from sea-level in the Chilean port of Arica to a height of 13,800 feet en route to the Bolivian city of La Paz.

Claudio Santana / AFP - Getty Images

Inaugurated on May 13, 1913, the line has a colorful history and remains a source of controversy, according to a report by BBC News:

The railway was built by Chile to compensate Bolivia for its loss of land during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific.

Chile won the war and annexed a swathe of Bolivian land roughly the size of Greece, leaving Bolivia landlocked.

The idea behind the railway was to give Bolivia access to the sea for its exports. It cost Chile £2.75m to build - around £195m ($300m) in today's money.

The Bolivians still demand sovereignty over at least a part of their former Pacific coastline, and last month took their case to the International Court in The Hague.

Claudio Santana / Pool via EPA

A conductor waits for passengers in Arica on May 13, 2013. Passenger services stopped running on the line in 1996, according to the BBC, but a special train ran to mark the railway's centenary.

Claudio Santana / Pool via EPA

Passengers ride on the Arica-La Paz railway during its centennial commemoration on May 13, 2013.

Claudio Santana / Pool via EPA

Passengers wait to board a train in Arica on May 13, 2013.

Claudio Santana / Pool via EPA

Eduardo Verdugo / AP

Migrants ride on top of a northern bound train toward the US-Mexico border in Juchitan, southern Mexico, on April 29. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.

Eduardo Verdugo / AP

Migrants riding on top of a northern bound train toward the US-Mexico border reach out to catch food tossed to them by residents, in Union Hidalgo, southern Mexico, on April 29.

Eduardo Verdugo / AP

Residents toss food to migrants riding on top of a northern bound train toward the US-Mexico border in Union Hidalgo in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, on April 29.

Eduardo Verdugo / AP

Migrants ride on top of a northern bound train toward the US-Mexico border in Union Hidalgo, southern Mexico, on April 29.

Immigration Nation: An in-depth look at immigration in America

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• US Border Patrol "Ranch Liaisons" ride with Arizona ranchers to discuss border issues
• For convicted immigrants, Maricopa County's tent jail may be last stop before deportation
• Deported from the US, Salvadorans return to their home country

AFP - Getty Images

An Indian forestry worker walks past the body of a tusker elephant after it was struck by a Guwahati-bound Somporkkranti Express train inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve, some 12 km from Alipurduar, West Bengal, India, on March 5, 2013.

An elephant was killed after it was hit by a train in northeastern India on Tuesday. The train was inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve, an area that elephants pass through as they migrate between India and Bhutan.

The Indian government has been urged to safeguard elephants straying across the country's vast but decrepit rail network, with statistics cited by The Times of India indicating that as many as 49 elephants may have been killed on train tracks since 2010.

India's Railway Minister said on Friday that speed restrictions have been put in place on trains traversing so-called elephant corridors, the newspaper reported. Pawan Kumar Bansal said the government is also considering constructing ramps and underpasses to allow the animals to cross tracks safely.

Related:

How did the elephants cross the road? They went underneath it

Elephant killed by train receives proper burial

Elephant gets stuck in Delhi traffic

GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains images which some viewers may find disturbing.

Kevin Frayer / AP

An Indian woman weeps as she watches from a staircase as rescue workers tend to the bodies of those killed in a stampede on a railway platform at the main railway station in Allahabad, India, Feb. 10,

At least 18 people were killed in a stampede in the Indian city of Allahabad on Sunday as Hindus returned from a river dip at the world's largest religious festival.

 An overcrowded railway station footbridge buckled and a railing collapsed, sending some people slipping down the stairs and triggering the stampede, a top state government official told Reuters, not wishing to be quoted by name.

-- Reported by Reuters

Full story: At least 18 killed during India festival stampede

Kevin Frayer / AP

An Indian man weeps as he and other family members mourn next to the body of a relative who was killed.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Indian police carry the body of a pilgrim who was killed.

Manan Vatsyayana / AFP - Getty Images

A woman lies on a bed at the Railway Hospital in Allahabad after being injured.

Saurabh Das / AP

Thousands of people crowd a platform waiting for trains to take them back home after visiting the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad, India.

Jonas Ekstromer / Scanpix Sweden via Reuters

Police officers stand around a local train that derailed and crashed into a residential building in Saltsjobaden outside Stockholm on Jan. 15, 2013.

Reuters reports — A cleaning lady allegedly stole a Swedish train and drove it off the end of the tracks and smashed into a house outside Stockholm on Tuesday.

It was not clear how the woman, around 20, got access to the key needed to start the train. She was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but the train was carrying no other passengers as it was in the early hours and no one in the house was hurt.

"The cleaner drove the train at high speed, considerably higher than normal on that stretch, to where the rails end and crashed into a house," said Jesper Pettersson, spokesman at Stockholm Public Transport (SL).

The train ploughed past the end of the line and vaulted over a street separating the house from the depot, crashing through a balcony and into a downstairs room in the upscale suburb of Saltsjobaden. SL and police were investigating how she had gained access to the cabin and been able to drive the train.

Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

Swiss firemen stand beside a demolished RE 440 train after a train crash in the northern Swiss town of Neuhausen am Rheinfall on Jan. 10, 2013.

Reuters reports — Two Swiss trains collided on Thursday, injuring 17 people, none of them seriously, and closing the line near the German border, police said.

The two local trains, one travelling from Winterthur and the other from Schaffhausen, crashed just outside the Neuhausen station in northern Switzerland. Read the full story.

Steffen Schmidt / EPA

Rescue helpers stand at the scene where two passenger trains collided near Neuhausen, northern Switzerland, on Jan. 10, 2013.

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Kevin Frayer / AP

Men look out from an overcrowded train to travel home for the Chhath Puja festival at a railway station in New Delhi, India, Nov. 16, 2012. Migrant workers from Bihar, one of the country's poorer states, are traveling home in large numbers for Chhath, dedicated to the sun god Surya, one of the most significant Vedic festivals in the region.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Tsering Topgyal / AP

Kevin Frayer / AP

Kevin Frayer / AP

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Jorge Saenz / AP

Students wearing traditional dresses walk near a 1960-era steam locomotive in the Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway maintenance shed, currently a museum, before dancing at a cultural fair in Sapucai, Paraguay, on Oct. 12. The railway, inaugurated on Oct. 21, 1861 for cargo and passengers, shut down in 2001 before being resurrected in 2012 as a tourism attraction. Train company president Marcelo Wagner says foreign investors have expressed interest in revitalizing the railway commercially with electric powered trains, but until plans are concreted, the steam powered trains will continue as a tourist attraction.

Jorge Saenz / AP

An abandoned Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway passenger car sits empty at the Luque train station in Paraguay on Oct. 12.

The Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway officially opened on Oct. 21, 1861 for cargo and passenger use in Paraguay. The steam railway was shut down after 140 years, before being resurrected in 2012 as a tourism attraction. Train company president Marcelo Wagner says foreign investors have expressed interest in revitalizing the railway commercially with electric powered trains, but until plans are cemented, the steam railway will continue as a tourist attraction.

--Reported by The Associated Press

Read the full story.

Editor's note: The AP made these pictures available to NBC News on Oct. 17.

Jorge Saenz / AP

A 1960-era steam locomotive from the Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway carries tourists in Asuncion, Paraguay on Oct. 7.

Jorge Saenz / AP

Vapor exits a 1960-era steam locomotive from the Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway as it runs in Asuncion, Paraguay on Oct. 7.

Jorge Saenz / AP

A tourist takes pictures as he rides the Carlos Antonio Lopez Railway 1960-era steam locomotive in Asuncion, Paraguay on Oct. 7.

Related content:

• Police evict squatters from Ava Guarani indigenous group in Paraguay
• Berlin commuter train derails
• Life on the tracks at a Thai railway bazaar
• Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev takes his cabinet on a railway journey
• Elephant killed by train receives proper burial

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Robert Schlesinger / AFP - Getty Images

Firemen and policemen investigate the scene where Berlin city train (S-Bahn) derailed, Aug. 21, 2012. Five people were injured as the train derailed between the Tegel and Schulzendorf train stations.

Robert Schlesinger / EPA

An S-Bahn city train derailed between the Tegel and Schulzendorf train stations in Berlin, Germany, Aug 21.

At least five people were injured when a Berlin city train (S-Bahn) left the tracks. According to The Local, approximately 50 people were aboard the train when it derailed. Read the full story.

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