St. Clair River Tunnel - Vintage Louis Pesha Postcard

Vintage image circa 1900-1907 by famed Great Lakes photographer, Louis Pesha. A SFTP EXCLUSIVE!!! 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. A full train could fit 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 Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTWR). Before the tunnel's construction, the GTR was forced to use time-consuming rail ferries to transfer cargo. The tunnel was an engineering marvel in its day, achieved through the development of original techniques for excavating in a compressed air environment. The Beach tunneling shield, designed by Alfred Beach, was used to assist workmen in removing material from the route of the tunnel. 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.