The First Street Tunnel is a two-track, soft-earth
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 ...
built between 1904 and 1906 by the
Washington Terminal Company
The Washington Terminal Company is a corporation created in Washington, D.C., United States, to provide support to railroads using Washington's Union Station. It is now a nearly wholly owned subsidiary of Amtrak.
It was established in 1901 by ...
to serve as the southern approach to
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in Washington, D.C. Currently owned by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
, it connects to lower-level
tracks and
platforms at the station, passes under
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
and connects to the
RF&P Subdivision
The RF&P Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation. It runs from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia, over lines previously owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. ...
(
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
) and
Long Bridge
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
, offering through railway service to
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
, and points west and south.
Unlike the
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...
tracks north of Union Station, the tunnel tracks are not
electrified
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...
, so southbound trains leaving Union Station must switch to
diesel locomotive
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 ...
s before entering the tunnel. Exiting Union Station, the tunnel runs due south under First Street NE and SE before curving to the southwest under a parking lot near the
Capitol South Metro station. Its southern portal is just east of South Capitol Street at the intersection of D Street SE and New Jersey Avenue SE.
The tunnel's height is .
[ Paper No. 1180.]
See also
*
Virginia Avenue Tunnel
The Virginia Avenue Tunnel is a railroad tunnel in Washington, D.C. owned by CSX Transportation. It is part of the CSX RF&P Subdivision and serves freight trains along the eastern seaboard routes, providing a bypass around Union Station.
The doub ...
References
External links
Heavy Rail Track and Structures in Washington DCBelowTheCapital.org
(Archive)
Amtrak tunnels
Railroad tunnels in Washington, D.C.
Tunnels completed in 1906
1906 establishments in Washington, D.C.
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