Rays Hill Tunnel is one of three original

Pennsylvania Turnpike The Pennsylvania Turnpike (Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike) is a toll highway operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A controlled-access highway, it runs for across the state. The turnpike's we ...

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 ...

s which were abandoned (this one in 1968) after two massive realignment projects. The others included the

Sideling Hill Tunnel Sideling Hill Tunnel is one of three original Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels abandoned (this one in 1968) after two massive realignment projects. The others are nearby Rays Hill Tunnel, and farther west, the Laurel Hill Tunnel. It was less expen ...

, and farther west, the

Laurel Hill Tunnel Laurel Hill Tunnel is a tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed and abandoned in 1964. It is bored through Laurel Ridge, spanning the border of Westmoreland and Somerset counties. Its western portal may be seen from the eastboun ...

. Rays Hill Tunnel is long. It was the shortest of the seven original tunnels on Pennsylvania Turnpike. Due to its short length, it only contains ventilation fans at its western portal. Its eastern portal is the only one of the 14 tunnel portals on the original turnpike that has no ventilation fan housing. It can be seen by westbound traffic on the Turnpike. The tunnel connects

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

and Fulton Counties in

South Central Pennsylvania South Central Pennsylvania is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the fourteen counties of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, Snyder, and York. Portions of west ...

Tunnel Bypass

Rays Hill Tunnel - Andrew Carnegie - 1880s

From the Turnpike's opening in 1940 until the realignment projects, the tunnels were bottlenecks due to reduced speeds with opposing traffic in the same tubes. Four other tunnels on the Turnpike - Allegheny Mountain,

Tuscarora Mountain Tuscarora Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Appalachian Mountains in the Ridge and Valley province in central Pennsylvania. It reaches its highest point on Big Mountain (Pennsylvania) at above sea level. The mountain is named after the Tuscaro ...

Kittatinny Mountain Kittatinny Mountain (Lenape: Kitahtëne) is a long ridge traversing primarily across Sussex County in northwestern New Jersey, running in a northeast-southwest axis, a continuation across the Delaware Water Gap of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain ...

, and Blue Mountain - each had a second tube bored, as it was determined in these instances to be the less expensive option. All of the original tunnels were part of the never-completed

South Pennsylvania Railroad The South Pennsylvania Railroad is the name given to two proposed, but never completed, Pennsylvania railroads in the nineteenth century. Parts of the right of way for the second South Pennsylvania Railroad were reused for the Pennsylvania Turnpik ...

which history has dubbed "Vanderbilt's Folly."

Current

At the present time, the tunnels remain unlit and unimproved since their closure in 1968. The entire length of the bypassed section is now commonly known as the

Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike is the common name of a stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 when a modern stretch opened to ease traffic congestion in the tunnels. In this case, the Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hi ...

Notes

References

External links

Gribblenation's page about Rays Hill Tunnel More information about Rays Hill Tunnel
Transportation buildings and structures in Bedford County, Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Fulton County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Former toll tunnels in the United States Tunnels completed in 1940 Former toll roads in Pennsylvania Road tunnels in Pennsylvania {{US-tunnel-stub