The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. It was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America. (By full-size it is meant that it allowed a railroad to run through it.)
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 ...
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The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. It was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America. (By full-size it is meant that it allowed a railroad to run through it.)
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 Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTWR). Before the tunnel's construction, the GTR 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 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....
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