The Fort McHenry Tunnel is one of two tunnels that carry traffic underneath the Baltimore Harbor. It is named for Fort McHenry, which it passes close by.
The tunnel, which opened on November 23, 1985, closed a gap in the East Coast’s most significant interstate route, Interstate 95, between Maine and Florida. At the time of its opening it was the most expensive underwater tunnel project in the United States, but that figure has since been surpassed by the Big Dig project in Boston.
The Fort McHenry Tunnel was constructed from June 1980 to November 1985, at a cost of about $750 million. The tunnel's annual traffic in 2009 was 43.4 million vehicles. As of November 2011 the toll rate for cars is $3.00, paid in either direction. Vehicles with more than two axles pay additional amounts, up to $15.00 for six axles.
Read more about Fort McHenry Tunnel: Design and Construction
Famous quotes containing the words fort and/or tunnel:
“How often we read that the enemy occupied a position which commanded the old, and so the fort was evacuated! Have not the school-house and the printing-press occupied a position which commands such a fort as this?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The drama critic on your paper said my chablis-tinted hair was like a soft halo over wide set, inviting eyes, and my mouth, my mouth was a lush tunnel through which golden notes came.”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)