BNSF/(GN+NP) 1905 Tunnel in Seattle, WA

(Archived Bridge Hunter)

North Portal: (Satellite) 

South Portal: (Satellite)

South Portal:

Street View, Aug 2015

Steven J. Brown posted
Burlington Northern wide-vision caboose 10107 (built as CB&Q 13689) on the Maltby Turn returning to Interbay at South Portal in Seattle, Washington - May 1990.

Billy Irwin: This caboose is still [2025] in service today with a updated paint job in the Seattle Stacy switch yard

Steven J. Brown shared

Bob Squaredancer commented on Steven's post
Cool now I know the name for this location. South Portal, 1979. 📷credit Greg Taggart

North Portal: You can't see the portal with a street view because the road is too high.

MyNorthwest
"It’s still serving freight customers and passengers, with 2,500 people and the equivalent of 12,000 truckloads of goods and other materials moving through the 113-year old subterranean corridor every day [in 2018]."

The north portal before the viaduct was built.

MyNorthwest

I presume the retaining walls were built to help create some more land area for the city.

Photo via pauldorpat, 2020
The tunnel allowed the Alaskan Way to be built where there used to be eight tracks. The 5,141.5' (0.91 mile or 1,467.1m) long tunnel delivered trains to King Street Station and points south. "When completed, it was the highest (25.8 feet [7.9m]) and widest (30 feet [9.1m]) tunnel in the world. The tube was lined with 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 feet of concrete, reaching its deepest point 111 feet below Fourth and Spring. Curiously, it also delved through remains of an anaerobically preserved primeval forest at Fourth and Marion. (Soon after exposure to air, the trees reportedly turned to mulch.)"

The Alaskan Way was built on the land that these tracks occupied.

HistoryLink
"It cost $1,500,000 to build and was intended for use by both the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific Railroads, which split construction costs."
The tunnel went north from the south portal on the west side of 4th Avenue to at least Spring Street.

I've looked at several topo maps, but none of them have dashed lines showing the route of the tunnel.

This shows why the material removed from the tunnel was used to create landfill for Kings Station and the railyards south of the station.

1894/1908 Seattle Quad @ 62,500

And that filled just part of the swamp.

1908/55 Seattle Quad @ 62,500

The route to the original tracks along the waterfront explains the shape of these buildings.

Satellite

railroad_journal posted four images with the comment:

BNSF Tunnel Under Seattle

The Great Northern Tunnel is a 1-mile double-tracked railway tunnel under downtown Seattle, Washington. It was completed by the Great Northern Railway in 1905, now part of the BNSF Scenic Subdivision. The BNSF Scenic Sub railroad line runs about 155 miles from Seattle to Wenatchee, Washington. It is part of the BNSF Northern Transcon that runs from Chicago to Seattle.

The North Portal of the railroad tunnel under Seattle, the mainline winds through a narrow path between buildings before emerging onto the waterfront. There, the line follows Elliot Bay for three miles north to BNSF Balmer Yard. 

The South Portal of Great Northern Tunnel is just north of King Street Station. It’s hard to visualize the 1-mile long railroad tunnel running directly underneath the Seattle Skyline.

Ken Haug: May 14,1979 my first day on the railroad and we worked inside the tunnel laying welder rail. Foreman would yell at us when we accidentally took out a light bulb tossing old rail plates against the wall to replace with bigger plates. Anytime trains passed though we stayed against the wall until the train passed. Worked 1-2 weeks inside before finally seeing daylight.

Clinton Michaels: what happens if there is a fire?

Euphoria Nashwa Rising: Clinton Michaels they don't run flammable cargo simultaneously with passenger.

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