SwtM - St. Clair River Tunnel Traditional Cache

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The Mitten Crew: Another year of the SwtM series has run it's course. Hope everyone enjoyed the caches, locations, and the pathtag!

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Hidden : 5/6/2016
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:



Date Designated: April 19, 1993
Location: Port Huron (St. Clair County)		 The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. It was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America. (By full-size it is meant that it allowed a railroad to run through it.)

First tunnel (1891-1995)
The St. Clair Tunnel Company opened the first tunnel in 1891. Before the tunnel's construction, rail ferries were used to transfer cargo, which was very time consuming.

The tunnel was an engineering marvel in its day. The development of original techniques were achieved for excavating in a compressed air environment. The Beach tunnelling shield was used to assist workmen in removing material from the route of the tunnel and left a continuous iron tube nearly 7,000 feet long. Freight trains used the tunnel initially with the first passenger trains using it in 1892. The tunnel measured 6,025 feet from portal to portal. The actual width of the St. Clair River at this crossing is only 2,290 feet. The tube had a diameter of 19 feet 10 inches and hosted a single standard gauge track. It was built at a cost of $2.7 million.

Steam locomotives were used in the early years to pull trains through the tunnel, however concerns about the potential dangers of suffocation should a train stall in the tunnel led to the installation of catenary wires for electric-powered locomotives by 1907. The first use of electric locomotives through the tunnel in regular service occurred on May 17, 1908.

The electric-powered locomotives were retired in 1958 and scrapped in 1959. New diesel-powered locomotives did not cause the same problems with air quality in this relatively short tunnel.

After the Second World War, railways in North America started to see the dimensions of freight cars increase, which exceeded the limits of the tunnel's dimensions.

Second tunnel (1995-present)
By the early 1990s, a study was commissioned for a replacement tunnel to be built adjacent to the existing St. Clair River tunnel. In 1993 construction of the newer and larger tunnel began. Unlike when the first tunnel was hand dug from both ends, an earth boring machine called the Excalibore was used. It started on the Canadian side and dug its way to the U.S. The tunnel opened later in 1994 whereupon freight and passenger trains stopped using the adjacent original tunnel, whose bore was sealed. The new tunnel was dedicated on May 5, 1995 and measures 6,129 feet from portal to portal with a bore diameter of 27 feet, 6 inches with a single standard gauge track. It could accommodate all freight cars currently in service in North America, thus the rail ferries were also retired in 1994 at the time of the tunnel's completion and opening for service.

Visit 14 geocaches in the SwtM series. At each geocache collect a letter and number combination. Insert them into the phrase FiTS LIKe A GlOVE. Use the coordinates from the phrase to find the final geocache and become a Mitten Master
St. Clair River Tunnel Fort Michilimackinac Grand Hotel
St. Mary's Falls Canal St. Ignace Mission North Manitou Lifesaving Station
Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Edison Institute State Capital
Quincy Mining Company Norton Mound Group Lightship "Huron"
Windemere USS Silversides 2016 Mitten Master

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Guerr Gerrf - Tvir njnl cvyr bs onex naq fgvpxf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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