On a grey and foggy day we went for a walk along the river. On our way back we found a large mural in one of the parking lots.
We’ve heard about the St Clair Tunnel before and planned to go see it at one point. Looks like today is that one point.
But where are they?
We looked on Google maps for the location and drove to where we thought they would be approximately. We found only locked gates and industrial areas near the river in those locations. The St Clair tunnel had to be further inland.
But where?
It was Google time. We found that there were plaques with a view of the tunnels on St. Andrews Street, so we headed out that way. We did find the plaques, but the view of the tunnel was obstructed by tall grass.
We are learning a bit more about the tunnels though.
This called for another consultation with Google. We decided to try and go around to the other side and try our luck there. We drove around to Tecumseth Street and stopped at the end. There was a chain link fence, but we could see the tunnels clearly.
They were surprisingly close together.
We were standing below a bridge, so we thought that driving on it will give us a good vintage point of the tunnels. It did! We drove on this bridge before, but never noticed the tunnels.
Zooming in,
and zooming in some more.
There was one more place that we needed to check out to complete our scavenger hunt.
We drove to the train station.
To the right of the station are two plaques and two arches.
This one was hard to read, but the guy on the right is Joseph hobson, the brains behind the tunnel.
The small arch to the right is a piece of the small tunnel’s cast iron lining
This post was about our scavenger hunt, but if you wish to read more about these historic tunnels, you can find great information here, and of course, on Wikipedia.
I love this adventure
We did too!
Can you imagine the building these tunnels at that time? Astounding!
By hand!
A good scavenger hunt requiring tunnel vision. 😁Allan
Haha, good one 🙂 We were digging hard and found the light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s awesome when you can create your own adventure locally and find a new way to experience a place you call you home! It’s also cool they showcased a piece of the cast iron tunnel outside for people to see. Modern (enough) architecture that we often take for granted.
It is! We feel like we are tourists in another country!
Love your travel stories! Bravo!
Thank you! And we love to have you with us 🙂
Very cool adventure. We often forget how innovative our ancestors were and what they achieved with so little machinery. I did go to the link and scanned the information . Apparently horses couldn’t survive during the construction so they had to use mules. And then afterwards if the train got delayed it could be fatal. Quite the history.
I thought it was fascinating. I love the story of digging form both sides and meeting in the middle.
And that they were only a quarter of an inch off when they met in the middle. That is amazing.
It really is!
A great Sarnia adventure! Such a great good-story history. Too bad you can’t go inside.Maggie
I will have to go and become a train engineer and then maybe I will be able to 🙂
Hahaha
Well you never gave up trying to find these tunnels and photographing them. I assume they fenced the tunnels off to preserve them. Would have been nice to have been able to walk through them. Interesting post.
Maybe they’ll have an open house for the older tunnel at one point. That would be amazing. The newer tunnel is operational, so I am assuming that don’t want people in there 🙂
An open house in the old tunnel would be great.
I love learning the history of places and how they came to be. Thanks for the lessons.
I loved that it was built from both side and is now recognized for its historic value by both countries. I don’t know how many places there are that share this type of recognition, but I thought it was special.
That’s cool! This reminds me of Brockville tunnel we visited last year, very interesting.
Oh, we’ll have to check it out!
This is a very historic site to see. These tunnels are so well constructed. I have never heard about this.
I know, me neither! Considering that this is was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America I thought it would be more known.
What a way to spend the day! Playing detective with finding the St Clair Tunnel looked like a lot of fun: if only there was a way to enter the tunnel, though!
Only on a freight train unfortunately!
What a neat scavenger hunt and I admire your persistence to find the tunnel. Mission accomplished!
Haha, it was a lot of fun!
Often when we discover a cool place I too use Google to fill in the knowledge gaps. And wow what a perfect name for this post. 😁
Haha, thank you
reminds me a bit of the Golden Arches at the end…
Haha, I guess 🙂
👍
I do love looking at these old structures and wonder how they were built. Putting that one section on display is a very good move.
I thought so too!
Nice! I love the mural that spurred your adventure.
Right? There’s an adventure behind every corner, and off every highway, if we just let ourselves follow the clues.
What a way to spend a day…! so much history in there.
It was so much fun!