page_title: Cascade Tunnel
section_title: Current tunnel
hierarchical_section_title: Cascade Tunnel / History / Current tunnel
caption_attribution_description: Great Northern Railway and A. Guthrie Co. officials at the entrance to the Cascade Tunnel, the longest tunnel in America (7.8 miles), January 12, 1929 Photographer: Pickett, Lee Subjects: Cascade Tunnel (Wash.) A. Guthrie and Company--Employees Railroad construction--Washington (State) Portraits, Group--Washington (State) Digital Collection: Lee Pickett Photographs &lt;a href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/pickettweb/index.html" rel="nofollow"&gt;content.lib.washington.edu/pickettweb/index.html&lt;/a&gt; Item Number: PIC0967 Persistent URL: &lt;a href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/u?/pickett,997" rel="nofollow"&gt;content.lib.washington.edu/u?/pickett,997&lt;/a&gt; Visit Special Collections &lt;a href="http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/service/reproduction.html" rel="nofollow"&gt;reproductions and rights&lt;/a&gt; page for information on ordering a copy. University of Washington Libraries. Digital Collections &lt;a href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/" rel="nofollow"&gt;content.lib.washington.edu/&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: The Cascade Tunnel refers to two railroad tunnels in the northwest United States, east of the Seattle metropolitan area in the Cascade Range of Washington, at Stevens Pass. It is approximately 65 miles east of Everett, with both portals adjacent to U.S. Route 2. Both single-track tunnels were constructed by the Great Northern Railway.
  The first was 2.63 miles in length and opened in 1900 to avoid problems caused by heavy winter snowfalls on the original line that had eight zig zags. The current tunnel is 7.8 miles in length and entered service in early 1929, approximately 1.5 miles south of and 500 feet lower in elevation than the original. The present east portal is nearly four miles east of the original's and is at 2,881 feet above sea level, 1,180 feet below the pass. The tunnel connects Berne in Chelan County on its east with Scenic Hot Springs in King County on its west and is the longest railroad tunnel in the United States.
context_section_description: The new Cascade Tunnel was opened on January 12, 1929. The new line had 72.9 route-miles or 93.2 track miles electrified,  between Skykomish and Wenatchee. The ruling grade was still 2.2 percent, although 21 miles of 2 percent or worse grade was eliminated. The line length was reduced by 8.7 miles, and maximum elevation was lowered by 502 feet (153 m) from 3,382 feet (1,031 m) to 2,881 feet (878 m).
  The new tunnel was started in December 1925, and was built in just over three years by A. Guthrie of St. Paul, Minnesota; the aim was to finish by the winter of 1928–1929 so that further maintenance on deteriorating snow sheds could be avoided.  Project manager and engineer Frederick Mears was assigned to make sure the project was completed.
  While the new tunnel was being constructed, the Great Northern received delivery of five new electric locomotives.  The new locomotives had a motor-generator supplying DC traction motors, and the single-phase AC supply required only one instead of two overhead conductors.  Hence, the Great Northern re-electrified 21 miles of the original route at single-phase (11 kV, 25 Hz) AC, including 8 miles that were subsequently abandoned upon completion of the new tunnel, and used steam locomotives on the short remaining stretches of the old line.
  On March 5, 1927, the three-phase electrification was abandoned, and the new locomotives were placed in service between Skykomish and the east portal of the old tunnel; the time was reduced from 4 hours for a 2500-ton eastbound train to 1 hour 45 minutes for a 3500-ton train.  Furthermore, for the first time regenerated power could be used by another train or fed back to the utility company (power from regenerative braking was previously dissipated in a water rheostat at the power station).
  Two years later, the new tunnel opened. It was the longest railroad tunnel in the Americas until 1989, when the Mount Macdonald Tunnel in British Columbia was completed, moving the Cascade into second place.
  Electrification was removed in 1956, after a ventilation system was installed to eliminate diesel fumes.
  On April 4, 1996 an eastbound freight train broke through the doors at the east portal after they did not open properly.  There were no injuries, but the broken doors slowed operations for a couple of days while replacement doors were brought up from the Seattle area.
caption: Opening of the new tunnel, January 12, 1929.
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