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Gray Summit Tunnel
Photos
Gray Summit Tunnel
Looking south along the UP Jeff City Sub
Photo taken by Nathan Morton in January 2007
BH Photo #127235
Description
This tunnel is the eastern of two bores dug in 1929, when the Missouri Pacific Railroad was adding a second parallel track on their busy St. Louis to Kansas City mainline and sought to reduce gradient, curvature, and route miles. The original right of way, built in 1853, crested the watershed boundary between the Meramec and Missouri Rivers here, and was at the top of an ascending grade from both directions on the railroad. In 1845, with the anticipation of the railroad bringing travelers through the area, New York businessman Daniel Gray built a hotel on the ridge, known at the time as "Point L'Abaddie", near where the railroad was surveyed to be built. His name was given to the depot and the new settlement: 'Gray's Summit'. On December 22, 1982, all Missouri Pacific properties were acquired by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which has continued regular rail service through the tunnel.Facts
- Overview
- Tunnel underneath the town of Gray Summit on the Union Pacific Railroad
- Location
- Franklin County, Missouri
- Status
- Open to two-track railroad traffic
- History
- Bored when the MPRR line Through Gray Summit was rebuilt to handle increased rail traffic.
- Railroad
- - Union Pacific Railroad (UP)
- Design
- Tunnel
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.48977, -90.81714 (decimal degrees)
38°29'23" N, 90°49'02" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/690377/4262415 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Gray Summit
- Inventory number
- BH 21488 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- November 16, 2010: Updated by Brian Parkinson: The comment below claiming the photograph to be of the Labadie tunnel is false.
- April 13, 2009: New photo from Nathan Morton
- November 7, 2008: New photo from Nathan Morton
© Copyright 2002-19, James Baughn and contributors.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/franklin/gray-summit-tunnel/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/franklin/gray-summit-tunnel/
Here is an old photograph, regional map, and street plan of the old town of Gray Summit, I've found no date, but I'll guess around 1900. The city map reveals a small spur track leaving the railroad east of the townsite, where limestone was quarried and shipped out by rail.
-Brian Daniel