THE JULY 12
REPORT
YORK, PA: This was the day I have anticipated for a long time, the day when I would hopefully find a piece of my past by seeking out the abandoned tunnels of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I know it sounds crazy, but this has meaning to me. Let me 'splain it to ya!
When I was but a wee lad, our family would visit relatives in Detroit and this was during the days before it was fashionable - or practical - to fly. So we would drive for 12 hours, from York to Michigan. Fortunately by that time, the turnpike had come into existence so the drive did not entail hours and hours of driving up and down the Allegheny Mountains. The turnpike was completed in 1940 and originally extended from Middlesex (near Harrisburg) to Irwin (near Pittsburgh). It was 160 miles of four-lane, controlled access toll road. What set it apart from other highways were its seven tunnels. The highway follows the path of an abandoned, partially-completed railway built in the late 1800's. When the rail project went bust, the right of way sat fallow for fifty years until the mid-1930's, when President Roosevelt saw the wisdom and functionality of providing high-speed, dependable access between two of Pennsylvania's larger cities.
I have a vivid memory of riding in the car in May 1959, during one of our trips. I was taken with the turnpike, its interchanges, tunnels, rest areas, the whole shebang. I asked my parents who builds turnpikes. They told me civil engineers build turnpikes. I said, that's what I want to be when I grow up. Thus was the die cast! At the age of 5-1/2, I determined that I was going to work for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and become part of this great organization that built and maintains what is known as "America's First Superhighway" - a "Magic Carpet Through the Alleghenies".
So I tried to do well in math in high school, and went through engineering school at Duke. On the way through undergraduate school, I got turned on to aviation and ultimately diverted to working for the FAA. I'm happy with the way things turned out, but I have always held a special place in my heart for this legendary public works project. It really did inspire me to become an engineer.
During the 60's, when turnpike traffic grew and created congestion at the two-lane, two-way, single-tube tunnels, some of the original tunnels were bypassed and others were treated to a second tube. I've always wanted to see the abandoned tunnels - Laurel Mountain, Sideling Hill, and Ray's Hill. Being back for the reunion and having a few days to spare presented the perfect opportunity.
Others have tread this unique path, and thanks to the Internet it was easy to get help to find the abandoned tunnels. A fellow enthusiast, John from Ohio, was kind enough to send me detailed instructions on how to find each portal. This trip Sara and I targeted Sideling and Ray's Hill tunnels, as Laurel Mountain was way far to the west; we'll save that one for later. Sideling and Ray's became passe when a 12-mile bypass was built over the mountains that these two tunnels pierce.
So this morning, we got started about 11:00 a.m. and our first objective was to find the western portal of the Ray's Hill Tunnel. This portal was very close to Breezewood, where we spent the night, and according to John it was simply a matter of driving up the hill on US 30, turning left at the only road that goes to the left up the mountain, driving down to an old overpass, climbing up onto the now-abandoned roadway, looking to the right, and observing the portal.
Driving up the mountain I missed the turn. When I got to the summit and started to come down the other side, I figured I better go back and try again. Sure enough, two-thirds of the way down the hill I saw the road - Mountain Chapel Road - and turned right on it. About a 1/2-mile down this road we came upon the overpass. Eventually I parked near the overpass, clambered up the abutment, got on the roadway, looked to the right - and there it was, the western portal of Ray's Hill Tunnel!
How small and meek this portal looks, after thirty-five years of abandonment and natural overgrowth. Hard to imagine that big trucks could actually fit in this tube! You can see where the four lanes narrow down to two at the portal's mouth.
One down, three to go! This was a little bit of all right! Drunk with success, we pressed on to try to find the eastern portal of Ray's Hill. Try was all we could do, we got close but didn't ever find the portal. John's instructions had us going back out to US 30, going over the summit, and finding a back road to an area that would put us almost directly on top of the eastern portal. We found the road OK, and when we got to the point where we should be able to find the portal, we were on a narrow gravel road with "No Trespassing" signs posted on either side of the path. The portal was supposed to be off the right "shoulder" and I could have rappelled down to a clear point - but decided not to. I am sure there was no one around to fire a load of buckshot into my derriere, but it just didn't feel right. So we turned around and went on to the next target, the western portal of Sideling Hill.
Ray's Hill was the shortest tunnel on the original main line turnpike, it was less than 4,000 feet in length. Sideling was the longest, at approx. 6,700 feet. To get to the western portal of Sideling Hill, we went the other way on the gravel road for about 5 miles, down the side of Sideling Hill, through a still heavily forested area. John's instructions said we would come upon a log cabin, then I should get out and hike back on a trail to the old roadbed. The tunnel, John said, would be clearly visible once I got to the abandoned roadway.
This is the log cabin that John was referring to. It was built during the 30's and might have served as a support base for the original construction crew. On the far left side of the image you can see the beginning of the trail that I hiked on back to the western portal of the Sideling Hill Tunnel.
Approx. a third of a mile down the trail, you come upon the original road and off to the left, you see the portal. To my amazement there were other people at the portal! The Sideling Hill portal seemed much larger and impressive than the Ray's Hill portal that we saw. The folks in the picture - one of the fellows was a local resident and he was showing his in-laws from Michigan the old turnpike.