Hoosac Tunnel

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Hoosac Tunnel
The east portal of the Hoosac Tunnel in 2024
Overview
LinePAS Freight Main Line
LocationFlorida, Massachusetts
StatusOperating
SystemPan Am Southern
Operation
Work begun1851 (1851) [1]
Constructed1851–1873[1]
OpenedFebruary 9, 1875 (1875-02-09)[1]
OwnerPan Am Southern LLC
OperatorNorfolk Southern, CSX Transportation
TrafficTrain
CharacterFreight
Technical
Length25,081 feet (7,645 m) long[1]
No. of tracksSingle
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge
Operating speed25 miles per hour (40 km/h)
Tunnel clearance20 feet (6.1 m)[1]
Width24 feet (7.3 m)[1]
Hoosac Tunnel
Hoosac Tunnel is located in Massachusetts
Hoosac Tunnel
Hoosac Tunnel is located in the United States
Hoosac Tunnel
LocationFrom North Adams on the West to the Deerfield River on the East
Coordinates42°40′30″N 73°2′43″W / 42.67500°N 73.04528°W / 42.67500; -73.04528
NRHP reference No.73000294[2]
Added to NRHPNovember 2, 1973

The Hoosac Tunnel (also called Hoosic or Hoosick Tunnel) is a 4.75-mile (7.64 km) active railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts that passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. It runs in a straight line from its east portal, along the Deerfield River in the town of Florida, to its west portal, in the city of North Adams.

Work began in 1851[1] under an estimated cost of $2 million and ended in 1875, having used $21 million. At its completion, the tunnel was the world's second-longest, after the 8.5-mile (13.7 km) Mont Cenis Tunnel through the French Alps. It was the longest tunnel in North America until the 1916 completion of the Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass in British Columbia.[3] It remains the longest active transportation tunnel east of the Rocky Mountains, and as of 1989 is the sixth-longest railroad tunnel in North America. The American Society of Civil Engineers made the tunnel an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1975.

"Hoosac" is an Algonquian word meaning "place of stones".

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Byron (1995), p. 144.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System – (#73000294)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  3. ^ Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Hoosac Tunnel" . Encyclopedia Americana.