Overview | |
---|---|
Location | Phoenixville, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 40°08′45″N75°30′56″W / 40.14583°N 75.51556°W |
Status | Active |
System | Reading Railroad (original) Norfolk Southern (current) |
Operation | |
Constructed | 1835–1837 |
Opened | 1838 |
Character | Freight |
Technical | |
Length | 1,932 feet (589 m) |
No. of tracks | Double (original) Single (current) |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
Tunnel clearance | 17 feet (5.2 m) |
The Black Rock Tunnel is an active rail road tunnel of the old Reading Railroad. The 1835 tunnel was the third rail tunnel constructed in the United States, and is the third oldest still in use. [1] The tunnel is also notable as being the first for which shafts were sunk during construction. [2] The tunnel is cut through a hill in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, United States. The tunnel and line are now owned by Norfolk Southern as part of its Harrisburg Line.
The Black Rock Tunnel was constructed between 1835 and 1837 and opened in 1838. W. Hasell Wilson was the resident engineer in charge. [2] The tunnel was originally 1,932 feet (589 m) long, 19 feet (5.8 m) wide, and 17 feet (5.2 m) high. [3] The tunnel passes 122 feet (37 m) below the top of the hill. [1] A then-unique feature of the tunnel's construction was the sinking of six, 7-foot (2.1 m) diameter shafts, tangent to the tunnel cross section. These shafts were spaced at 100-foot (30 m) intervals to correct errors in the tunnel alignment. [2] Construction of the tunnel cost an estimated $178,992, equal to $5,121,409 today. [4]
Noted local miner, geologist and paleontologist Charles M. Wheatley examined the rock excavated from the tunnel and identified many previously unknown fossilized species, some of which now bear his name. [5]
In 1858 and 1859 the Black Rock and Flat Rock Tunnels were widened to accommodate the wider rolling stock from the Lebanon Valley Branch. The spacing between the tracks was increased from 4 feet (1.2 m) to 6 feet (1.8 m). The widening of the tunnel was the first project to employ electric detonation of multiple explosive charges. [6]
The northern end of the tunnel is high on a steep bank of the Schuylkill River so the rail line makes a dramatic transition from tunnel to bridge. The ends of the Black Rock Tunnel are located at 40°08′51″N75°31′06″W / 40.14750°N 75.51833°W and 40°08′39″N75°30′46.5″W / 40.14417°N 75.512917°W .
Box Tunnel passes through Box Hill on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Bath and Chippenham. The 1.83-mile (2.95 km) tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel when it was completed in 1841.
Phoenixville is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Philadelphia at the junction of French Creek and the Schuylkill River. It is in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. According to a 2022 estimate, the population was 19,354.
The Schuylkill River is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for 135 miles (217 km) from Pottsville southeast to Philadelphia, where it joins the Delaware River as one of its largest tributaries.
The Passaic and Harsimus Line, part of Conrail Shared Assets Operations, serves freight in northeastern New Jersey. It takes trains from the Northeast Corridor and Lehigh Line near Newark Liberty International Airport northeast and east into Jersey City. It is part of CSX's main corridor from upstate New York to the rest of the east coast.
The Center City Commuter Connection (CCCC), commonly referred to as "the commuter tunnel", is a passenger railroad tunnel in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The tunnel was built to connect the stub ends of the two separate regional commuter rail systems, which were originally operated by Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company, two rival rail companies.
The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It funded the construction of various long-proposed canal and road projects, mostly in southern Pennsylvania, that became a canal system and later added railroads. Built between 1826 and 1834, it established the Pennsylvania Canal System and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
The Schuylkill Canal, or Schuylkill Navigation, was a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, built as a commercial waterway in the early 19th-century. Chartered in 1815, the navigation opened in 1825, to provide transportation and water power.
The Montour Trail is a multi-use recreational rail trail near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formerly the Montour Railroad.
The East River Tunnels are four single-track railroad passenger service tunnels that extend from the eastern end of Pennsylvania Station under 32nd and 33rd Streets in Manhattan and cross the East River to Long Island City in Queens. The tracks carry Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Amtrak trains travelling to and from Penn Station and points to the north and east. The tracks also carry New Jersey Transit trains deadheading to Sunnyside Yard. They are part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, used by trains traveling between New York City and New England via the Hell Gate Bridge.
Mont Clare is a village in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The village is located on the left bank of the Schuylkill River opposite Phoenixville and Chester County. Mont Clare is at the site of the former Jacobs' ford. Mont Clare hosts the only functional lock and one of only two remaining watered stretches of the Schuylkill Canal. Mont Clare was the birthplace of the infamous outlaw Sundance Kid. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 1,852.
The Phoenix Iron Works, located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was a manufacturer of iron and related products during the 19th century and early 20th century. Phoenix Iron Company was a major producer of cannon for the Union Army during the American Civil War. The company also produced the Phoenix column, an advance in construction material. Company facilities are a core component of the Phoenixville Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places site that was in 2006 recognized as a historic landmark by ASM International.
The Harrisburg Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Philadelphia west to Harrisburg.
The Schuylkill Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in Pennsylvania. The line ran from the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line at 52nd Street in Philadelphia north via Norristown, Reading, and Pottsville to Delano Junction, about 2.5 mi (4.0 km) northeast of Delano. From Delano Junction, the PRR had trackage rights over the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Hazleton Branch and Tomhicken Branch to Tomhicken, where the PRR's Catawissa Branch began.
The Phoenixville Tunnel, originally called the Fairview Tunnel, was part of the Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
The Flat Rock Tunnel is an active railroad tunnel located on Norfolk Southern's Harrisburg Line near Manayunk, Pennsylvania, United States. The tunnel was built by the Reading Railroad for its line along the Schuylkill River.
The Round Top Branch was an extension of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad from the Gettysburg borough across the Gettysburg Battlefield to Round Top, Pennsylvania. The branch ran southward from the terminus of the railroad's main line, west of the school and St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, across the field of Pickett's Charge, south of Cemetery Ridge, east of Weikert Hill and Munshower Knoll, and through Round Top to a point between Little Round Top's east base and Taneytown Road. In addition to battlefield tourists, the line carried stone monoliths and statues for monuments during the battlefield's memorial association and commemorative eras and equipment, supplies and participants for Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War.
The Pickering Valley Railroad was a short line railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It ran from Phoenixville to Byers, near Eagle, in Upper Uwchlan Township, a distance of approximately 11 miles (18 km), over which distance it gained 316 feet (96 m) in elevation. Operated as a unit of the Reading Railroad, the Pickering Valley was not a great success; passenger service was discontinued in 1934, and most of the line was abandoned in 1948. The remainder of the line was closed in the 1980s; little remains today.
The Lehigh Line is a railroad line in Central New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The line runs west from the vicinity of the Port of New York and New Jersey in Manville, New Jersey via Conrail's Lehigh Line to the southern end of Wyoming Valley's Coal Region in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania.