St. Clair Tunnel
View of the original tunnel (closed in 1994) from a 1907 postcard
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Paul M. Tellier Tunnel (second tunnel) |
| Location | St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario |
| Coordinates | 42°57′30″N 82°24′38″W / 42.95833°N 82.41056°WCoordinates: 42°57′30″N 82°24′38″W / 42.95833°N 82.41056°W |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1891 (first tunnel) 1994 (second tunnel) |
| Closed | 1994 (first tunnel) |
| Operator | Canadian National Railway |
| Technical | |
| Length | 6,025 feet (1,836 m) (first tunnel) 6,129 feet (1,868 m) (second tunnel) |
| No. of tracks | Single (each tunnel) |
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| Designated | October 15, 1970 |
| Reference no. | 70000684 |
| Designated | April 19, 1993 |
| Built | 1889 |
| Architect | Beach,Alfred; Hobson,Joseph |
| Governing body | Private |
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 Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway, predecessor to the Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW). Before the tunnel's construction, Grand Trunk was forced to use time-consuming rail ferries to transfer cargo.
The tunnel was an engineering marvel in its day and designed by Joseph Hobson. The development of original techniques were achieved for excavating in a compressed air environment. The Beach tunnelling shield, designed by Alfred Ely Beach, was used to assist workmen in removing material from the route of the tunnel and left a continuous iron tube nearly 7,000 feet (2,100 m) long. Freight trains used the tunnel initially with the first passenger trains using it in 1892.
The tunnel measured 6,025 feet (1,836 m) from portal to portal. The actual width of the St. Clair River at this crossing is only 2,290 feet (698 m). The tube had a diameter of 19 feet 10 inches (6.05 m) and hosted a single standard gauge track. It was built at a cost of $2.7 million.
Steam locomotives were used in the early years to pull trains through the tunnel, however concerns about the potential dangers of suffocation should a train stall in the tunnel led to the installation of catenary wires for electric-powered locomotives by 1907. The first use of electric locomotives through the tunnel in regular service occurred on May 17, 1908. The locomotives were built by Baldwin-Westinghouse.
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