The Great Northern Tunnel is a double-tracked railway

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 ...

under downtown

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, completed by the Great Northern Railway in 1905, and now owned by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

, on its

Scenic Subdivision The Scenic Subdivision or Scenic Sub is a railroad line running about 155 miles (249 km) from Seattle, Washington to Wenatchee, Washington. It is operated by BNSF Railway as part of their Northern Transcon. This route includes the Cascade Tu ...

. At the time it was built, it was the tallest and widest tunnel in the United States, at high and wide. The southern portal is just north of

King Street Station King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak's '' Cascades'', ''Coast Starlight'', and ''Empire Builder'', as well as Sounder commuter trains run by Sound Transit. The station also anchor ...

, and the northern in

Victor Steinbrueck Park Victor Steinbrueck Park is a 0.8 acre (3,000 m²) park in Downtown Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States, located just northwest of Pike Place Market overlooking Elliott Bay. Named for the Seattle-based architect Victor Steinbrue ...

, between Virginia and Pine Streets. The

Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT), also referred to as the Metro Bus Tunnel, is a pair of public transit tunnels in Seattle, Washington, United States. The double-track tunnel and its four stations serve Link light rail trains on the ...

passes four feet below the Great Northern Tunnel. Great Northern Tunnel - Plaque

Freight and passenger trains use the tunnel, including

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 ...

service to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(the ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

'') and

Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

('' Cascades''), and

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

's Seattle– Everett

Sounder Sounder may refer to: * ''Sounder'' (novel), a book by William H. Armstrong * ''Sounder'' (film), a film based on the novel *Sounder, a group of wild boar or domestic pigs foraging in woodland; see List of animal names *Sounder, a device that tra ...

commuter rail service. Seattle - South Portal of train tunnel 01

References

External links

* BNSF Railway tunnels Great Northern Railway (U.S.) tunnels Railroad tunnels in Seattle Tunnels completed in 1905 1905 establishments in Washington (state) Underground commuter rail {{Washington-transport-stub