Sideling Hill Tunnel is one of three original Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels abandoned (this one in 1968) after two massive realignment projects. The others are nearby Rays Hill Tunnel, and further west, the Laurel Hill Tunnel. It was less expensive to realign the Turnpike than to bore a second tube for four lane traffic. Sideling Hill Tunnel is 6,782 feet (2,067 m) long. It was the longest of the original tunnels on Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Ray's Hill Tunnel and Sideling Hill Tunnel are now part of the Pike2Bike Trail. Together, the two tunnels as well as the roadway are commonly known as the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.
From the Turnpike's opening in 1940 until the realignment projects, the tunnels were bottlenecks; opposing traffic in the same tubes reduced speeds. Four other tunnels on the Turnpike – Allegheny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, and Blue Mountain – each had a second tube bored, the least expensive option. All of the original tunnels except for the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel were part of "Vanderbilt's Folly", the never-completed South Pennsylvania Railroad.
Famous quotes containing the words hill and/or tunnel:
“‘O glorious Life, Who dwellest in earth and sun,
I have lived, I praise and adore Thee.”
A sword swept.
Over the pass the voices one by one
Faded, and the hill slept.”
—Sir Henry Newbolt (1862–1938)
“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)