Monday morning, construction crews used a special thermite welding process to connect the first two sections of rail on the Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail line.

Each piece of rail is heated for ten minutes until the ends are white hot and then the thermite material is placed between the rails super-heating the metal so that it melts and becomes one piece.

They'll do this for each of the rail segments.

The line runs 7.3 miles, but there will be a total of 29 miles of rail.

Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel in Pueblo, Colorado manufactured the rail.

The new line is set to start operations in 2015.

Photo: TRIMET