Tunnel City, Wisconsin

Tunnel City is an unincorporated census-designated place in the town of Greenfield, Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States,[5][6] named after the train tunnel through a hill just to the west of town.

Tunnel City, Wisconsin
Census-designated place
Tunnel City
Tunnel City, Wisconsin
Coordinates: 44°00′26″N 90°33′56″W
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
County	Monroe
Area [1]
• Total	0.80 km^2 (0.310 sq mi)
• Land	0.80 km^2 (0.310 sq mi)
• Water	0 km^2 (0 sq mi)
Elevation	320 m (1,060 ft)
Population  (2010)[2]
• Total	106
• Density	130/km^2 (340/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	54662[3]
Area code(s)	608
GNIS feature ID	1575713[4]

First tunnel

This first tunnel was built by the La Crosse and Milwaukee railroad, and used by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road).[7] The tunnel was completed in 1858 as the last segment of the rail route from Milwaukee to La Crosse. The station was simply named "Tunnel". The existing track is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, whose Soo Line subsidiary purchased the assets of the Milwaukee Road. The track carries Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train, though rail traffic is dominated by freight as the Tomah Subdivision. The Empire Builder does not stop in Tunnel City. This tunnel was updated in 1861.[8] The Soo Line had raised the bore of the tunnel 14 inches (36 cm) in 1992 to accommodate double stack traffic.[9] The Soo Line considered excavating the hill or "daylighting" the tunnel bore.

Census information

As of the 2010 census, its population is 106.[2] Tunnel City has an area of 0.310 square miles (0.80 km²), all of it land.

Second tunnel

The Milwaukee, Sparta, and Northwestern Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, built the "Air Line" or "Adams Cutoff" towards Sparta, Wisconsin in 1910.[7] This is when the second tunnel through the hill west of the town was constructed. It is just to the north of the older tunnel and parallel. This 1910 tunnel collapsed in March 1973. An extra heavy snow added to already saturated ground.[10] The Chicago and North Western rerouted to the older Milwaukee tunnel.[11] The CNW route, to Onalaska and Winona, is now abandoned west of the 1910 tunnel. The Union Pacific Railroad, which purchased the CNW, has trackage rights from Tunnel City through La Crosse on the Canadian Pacific track.[12] These rights date from the CNW tunnel collapse in 1973.[13]

Gallery

Notes

1. "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
2. "U.S. Census website". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
3. "Tunnel City Zipcode". Retrieved 2019-02-21.
4. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Tunnel City, Wisconsin
5. Tunnel at Tunnel City, WHi-24918 Wisconsin Historical Society, undated photograph of construction workers posed near the east portal of the railroad tunnel near Tunnel City.
6. Tunnel City, WI Profile: Facts & Data Home Town Locator, access to 50 state Gazetters
7. History of Monroe County, Wisconsin: Past and Present Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County. Unigraphic. 1912.
8. CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD Architecture and History Inventory Wisconsin Historical Society. 1976 photographs. THE FIRST RAILROAD TUNNEL WAS BUILT IN 1858 (NO LONGER EXTANT) AFTER SURVEYORS EMPLOYED BY THE LACROSSE AND MILWAUKEE RAILROAD WERE SENT TO FIND THE BEST ROUTES FROM THEIR EASTERN TERMINAL AT NEW LISBON TO LACROSSE. TUNNEL CITY DEVELOPED AS A RESULT OF THE RAILROADS AND STAGE LINES CARRYING FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS TO AND FROM LACROSSE. THE TUNNEL BUILT IN 1861 BY THE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL IS EXTANT; THE ONE BUILT BY THE CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN IS NOT.
9. Pacific Rail News. Interurbans Publications. 1992.
10. Monroe County Bicentennial Committee (Wis.). (1976). Monroe County, Wisconsin, pictorial history. The Committee.
11. Tom Murray. Chicago & North Western Railway. Voyageur Press. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-61673-154-0.
12. Trains Hotspots: LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN. Trains Magazine, September 2014
13. The Wisconsin State Rail Plan, 1983 Update: An Element of Wisconsin's Transportation Planning Program. Wisconsin Department of Transportation. 1983. pp. 186–.