The Brockville Railway Tunnel, also called the Brockville Tunnel, is a former

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

located beneath the downtown of

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It i ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is the first railway tunnel built in Canada; construction began in September 1854 and the first train passed through the tunnel on December 31, 1860. Since 2017 it has been opened to the public as a free seasonal tourist attraction. The tunnel runs in a north/south direction from Water Street, for a distance of 527 m (1,730 ft). It passes underneath what is now Brockville City Hall, built in 1863–64 as the Victoria Hall. It was built by the

Brockville and Ottawa Railway The Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) was an early railway in Upper Canada, today's Ontario. It ran north from the town of Brockville on the Saint Lawrence River to Sand Point on the Ottawa River. It was built primarily to serve the timber tra ...

. The tunnel was designed to provide a rail link from the timber trade of the

Ottawa Valley The Ottawa Valley is the valley of the Ottawa River, along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais, Quebec, Canada. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. Because of the surroundi ...

to the Brockville port facilities on the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

ship route. The

, incorporated in 1853, ran from Brockville, through Smiths Falls, to Sand Point, near

Arnprior Arnprior is a town in Renfrew County, in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located west of Downtown Ottawa, at the confluence of the Madawaska River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Arnprior has experienced sign ...

, with a branch line from

Smiths Falls Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, southwest of Ottawa. As of the 2021 census it has a population of 9,254. It is in the Census division for Lanark County, but is separated from the county. The Rideau Canal waterway passes thr ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Its first B&OR train left Brockville on January 25, 1859, almost two years before finances permitted completion of the tunnel. The Brockville and Ottawa Railway amalgamated in 1878 with the

Canada Central Railway The Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) was an early railway in Upper Canada, today's Ontario. It ran north from the town of Brockville on the Saint Lawrence River to Sand Point on the Ottawa River. It was built primarily to serve the timber tr ...

, which was absorbed in 1881 by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

(CPR). The rail line through the tunnel was later used by special height-shortened steam engines, and then

diesel trains A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

into the mid-1970s. The rails and ties were then sold and removed in the 1980s, and the railway tunnel was no longer used as it was built. In 1982, the tunnel was turned over to the City of Brockville by Marathon Realty, the real-estate wing of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 2016–17, the railway tunnel underwent a major interior rehabilitation to make it possible to travel safely through it on foot. Visitors can now walk from the south portal to the north portal, exiting at the north-end gorge and up a ramp to street level. Prior to the rehabilitation visitors were only able to enter at the south portal and walk a short distance underground. The railway tunnel has received thousands of visitors since it opened completely on August 12, 2017. It now features a modern LED coloured light system, which is programmed in various ways, along with a recorded music track playing while one walks through. Adjacent to the tunnel is a refurbished CPR

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damag ...

or van, that was donated in 1987 to the city by the Canadian Pacific Railway. A detailed plaque,Plaque
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113108/http://crowquiller.multiply.com/photos/album/99?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fphotos%2Falbum#photo=1 , date=March 4, 2016 in both English and French, describes the details and story of how cabooses were formerly part of every train. Today the caboose operates as an escape room experience. MG 3067-5.jpg, MG 3101-11.jpg, MG 3121-15.jpg, MG 3058-1.jpg,

References

External links

Official website
Railway tunnels in Ontario Canadian Pacific Railway tunnels Buildings and structures in Brockville Tunnels completed in 1860 Rail transport in Brockville Tourist attractions in Leeds and Grenville United Counties Rail infrastructure in Leeds and Grenville United Counties History of rail transport in Leeds and Grenville United Counties