page_title: Baltimore Belt Line
section_title: Howard Street Tunnel
hierarchical_section_title: Baltimore Belt Line / Construction / Howard Street Tunnel
caption_attribution_description: English: Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad, Howard Street Tunnel, 1300 Mount Royal Avenue (Baltimore, Maryland)
context_page_description: The Baltimore Belt Line was constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the early 1890s to connect the railroad's newly constructed line to Philadelphia and New York City/Jersey City with the rest of the railroad at Baltimore, Maryland. It included the Howard Street Tunnel, the Mount Royal Station for B&O's Royal Blue Line passenger trains, and the first mainline railroad electrification in the United States. The line is currently operated by CSX Transportation as part of its Baltimore Terminal Subdivision.
context_section_description: The Howard Street Tunnel, originally a 1.4-mile (2.3 km) long tunnel under Howard Street in downtown Baltimore, took four and a half years to build (1890–95) and was the longest tunnel on the B&O's system. Its construction cost $7 million (equivalent to more than $200 million in 2018) and required 2,400 workers. In the mid-1980s, the tunnel's original length of 1.4 miles or 7,340 feet (2,237 m) was extended an additional three-tenths of a mile (480 m) further south of its original Camden Station portal when the B&O successor CSX Transportation's mainline track east of the B&O warehouse was covered over for construction of Interstate 395. The tunnel is brick-lined with iron-arched centerings. At the time of completion it was considered innovative for its use of electricity for illumination and powering of locomotives.  Inside the tunnel, there was an underground platform for trains serving Camden Station. The Howard Street Tunnel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
caption: Howard Street Tunnel
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