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BNSF - Cascade Tunnel

King County, Washington, and Chelan County, Washington

Photos 

West Portal

BH Photo #136195

Map 

Video 

Cascade Tunnel, East Portal

On my recent trip to Seattle, Washington, I visited the longest railroad tunnel in the U.S., the Cascade Tunnel, and checked out the action on the East Portal.

Video link posted by Ed Hollowell

Play video on YouTube

Facts 

Overview
Tunnel under Cascade Mountains on BNSF Railway (former Great Northern Railway)
Location
King County, Washington, and Chelan County, Washington
Status
Open to traffic
History
Longest rail tunnnel in the US, finished in 1929 to bypass old tunnel, switchbacks, and 1.7% grade
Builder
- A. Guthrie & Co. of St. Paul, Minnesota
Railroads
- BNSF Railway (BNSF)
- Burlington Northern Railroad (BN)
- Great Northern Railway (GN)
Design
It is the longest railroad tunnel in the United States and was constructed by the Great Northern Railway, being put in service on January 12, 1929. The new tunnel reduced the summit by 501 feet (153 m) (to an altitude of 2,881 feet/878 metres) from the original tunnel, which had suffered problems with fumes, and was itself built to avoid problems caused by heavy winter snowfalls on the original line that had eight switchbacks
Dimensions
Total length: 41,200.0 ft. (7.8 mi.)
Also called
Great Northern Railway Cascade Tunnel #15
New Cascade Tunnel
Approximate latitude, longitude
+47.71532, -121.14522   (decimal degrees)
47°42'55" N, 121°08'43" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
10/639115/5286325 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Scenic
Inventory number
BH 41926 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

A. Guthrie & Co. (9)
BNSF Railway (1,506)
Bore Tunnel (291)
Built 1929 (1,013)
Built during 1920s (9,922)
Burlington Northern Railroad (461)
Chelan County, Washington (45)
Great Northern Railway (360)
 King County, Washington (210)
Open (39,882)
Over a mile long (301)
Owned by railroad (12,421)
Total length over 2500 feet (916)
Tunnel (1,310)
Washington (1,314)

Update Log 

  • December 23, 2015: New photo from Charles Kuehn
  • April 30, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Refined builder name.
  • April 30, 2012: Updated by Neil Martel: Added builder
  • April 7, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Great Northern Railway"
  • April 7, 2012: Updated by Neil Martel: Updated alternate name
  • September 9, 2010: New photos from Nathan Morton
  • March 13, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: GPS location
  • March 29, 2009: Added by Nathan Morton

Sources 

  • Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
  • Neil Martel
  • Luke
  • Wikipedia - Cascade Tunnel
  • Charles Kuehn

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