SAN JOSE MINE, Chile » The last of the Chilean miners, the foreman who held them together when they were feared lost, was raised from the depths of the Earth last night — a joyous ending to a 69-day ordeal that riveted the world. No one has ever been trapped so long and survived.

Luis Urzua ascended smoothly through 2,000 feet of rock, completing a flawless 22 1/2 -hour operation that unfolded with remarkable speed. Before a jubilant crowd of about 2,000, he became the 33rd miner to be rescued.

"We have done what the entire world was waiting for," he told Chilean President Sebastian Pinera immediately after his rescue. "The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing."

The president told him: "You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter."

The rescue exceeded expectations every step of the way. Officials first said it might be four months before they could get the men out; it turned out to be 69 days and about eight hours.

The crowd in "Camp Hope," downhill from the escape shaft, set off confetti, released balloons and sprayed champagne as Urzua’s capsule surfaced, joining in a miners’ cheer. In Chile’s capital of Santiago, hundreds gathered in Plaza Italia, waving flags and chanting victory slogans.

One by one throughout the day, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. While the operation picked up speed as the day went on, each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause.

"Welcome to life," Pinera told Victor Segovia, the 15th miner out. It seemed no overstatement.

The miners rejoin a world intensely curious about their ordeal, and certain to offer fame. Riches await the men used to working the unstable gold and copper mine for about $1,600 a month.

Chile has promised that its care of the miners won’t end for six months at least — not until it can be sure that each has readjusted.

News channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage of the rescue. The images beamed to the world were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.

The rescuers included many Americans, including a driller operator from Denver and a team from Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., that built and managed the piston-driven hammers that pounded the hole through rock laced with quartzite, some of the hardest and most abrasive rock.

President Barack Obama said the rescue had "inspired the world."