The Flat Rock Tunnel is an active
railroad 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 constr ...
located on
Norfolk Southern's
Harrisburg Line near
Manayunk,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States. The tunnel was built by the
Reading Railroad for its line along the
Schuylkill River.
Construction of the tunnel started in 1836 and it opened in 1840.
In 1858-9 the Flat Rock and
Black Rock Tunnel
The Black Rock Tunnel is an active rail road tunnel of the old Reading Railroad. The 1835 tunnel was the third rail tunnel constructed in the United States, and is the third oldest still in use. The tunnel is also notable as being the first for ...
s were widened to accommodate the wider rolling stock from the
Lebanon Valley Branch. The spacing between the tracks was increased from to . The widening of the tunnel was the first project to employ electric detonation of multiple explosive charges.
See also
*
References
External links
*{{HAER , survey=PA-539 , id=pa3749 , title=Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, Flat Rock Tunnel, Beneath Flat Rock Hill, west of Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), West Manayunk, Montgomery County, PA , photos=2 , data=10 , cap=1
Transportation buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Norfolk Southern Railway tunnels
Railroad tunnels in Pennsylvania
Reading Railroad tunnels
Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania