First Tunnel (1891-1995)
The St. Clair Tunnel Company opened the first tunnel in 1891. The company was a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), which used the new route to connect with its subsidiary Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway predecessor to the Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW). Before the tunnel's construction, Grand Trunk was forced to use time-consuming rail ferries to transfer cargo.
The tunnel was an engineering marvel in its day, achieved through the development of original techniques for excavating in a compressed air environment. The Beach tunneling shield, designed by Alfred Ely Beach, was used to assist workmen in removing material from the route of the tunnel. Freight trains used the tunnel initially with the first passenger trains using it in 1892.
The tunnel measured 6,025 feet (1,836 m) from portal to portal. The actual width of the St. Clair River at this crossing is only 2,290 feet (698 m). The tube had a diameter of 19 feet, 10 inches (6.05 m) and hosted a single standard gauge track. It was built at a cost of $2.7 million.
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Famous quotes containing the word tunnel:
“It is the light
At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
By him looking out somberly at the shower,
The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
You can’t have.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)