Present Day
The east portal of the tunnel has collapsed and the west portal has been covered by landslides. The former railbed is now a hiking trail on the east side and a rough road over the former railbed on the west side leads to a restored railway station.
Little remains of the station complex built by the railroad to service its trains and workers at this remote and inhospitable location. Volunteers have restored the railroad's 1883 Alpine Tunnel telegraph office and reconstructed the station platform and 120 feet (37 m) of rail track, a turntable and an outhouse. Only ruins remain of the section house and engine house, and other buildings and railroad infrastructure have disappeared.Volunteers work on restoration of the complex at least once a year.
The Alpine Tunnel Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1996. It is typically open from July to September.
Read more about this topic: Alpine Tunnel
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“The reverence for the deeds of our ancestors is a treacherous sentiment. Their merit was not to reverence the old, but to honor the present moment; and we falsely make them excuses of the very habit which they hated and defied.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But each day brings its petty dust
Our soon-choked souls to fill,
And we forget because we must,
And not because we will.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)