p. 25 | The Hoosac Tunnel

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1874

The Hoosac Tunnel.

On Thanksgiving day, the thin partition of rock which alone remained between the two sections of the Hoosac Tunnel was broken down by a prodigious blast of nitro-glycerine, and light at last streamed through the mountain. Thus is virtually accomplished one of the most stupendous engineering feats of modern times.

The Hoosac Mountain is a part of the Green Mountain range, lying across the western end of Massachusetts. The Boston and Albany Railroad climbs in between Westfield and Pittsfield by a tortuous course and a series of easy gradients. The tunnel lies further to the north and forms a link in the chain of communication between Boston and the West by way of the Fitchburg, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and Troy and Greenfield Railroads. The mountain, at the point selected for tunneling, is about 2,500 feet high, having two ridges with a depressed plateau between them. The distance through from heading to heading, and therefore the length of the tunnel, is four and three-quarter miles.

The tunnel was projected many years before ground was fairly broken, which we understand to have been in January, 1872, Rev. Dr. Crawford, of Deerfield, striking the first spade into the mountain on its eastern side. From the outset, the history of the undertaking has been one of struggle, imminent failure, pluck, skill, and perseverance. Space fails us to tell of the peculiar and vexatious obstacles encountered, the ingenious and costly mechanism used, the wonderful nicety of the calculation by which the eastern and western headings met under the headings within a fraction of an inch, the numerous casualties and narrow escapes, the various interesting experiments in methods resorted to, and all the other entertaining points in such a piece of work. As it stands, or rather as it will stand when trains are running through it on double tracks, it is a monument to the triumph of mind over matter, a credit to the skill and patience of engineers, workmen, and contractors, and an honor to the State of Massachusetts.—Congregationalist.