I’m pretty sure we will never witness something similar to this during our lifetime.
This video I just found on YouTube shows old footage from the opening of the Beirut-Tripoli railway line on December 20th 1942 which was at that time the last link in the Cairo-London line, and you can see the Lebanese president back then Alfred Naccache present at the event (at the 1m56s mark).
As you watch the video you can easily identify Naher El Kaleb at the beginning and probably Jbeil at the 1m10s mark, but it gets difficult (at least for me) to identify the areas that later show.
