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 first tunnel was completed in 1858 as the last segment of the rail route from Milwaukee to La Crosse. The station was simply named "Tunnel". This tunnel was updated in 1861.[8] It was replaced by another tunnel directly to its north in 1874.[9] That tunnel, and the railroad itself, is now owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, whose Soo Line subsidiary purchased the rail assets of the Milwaukee Road in February 1985. The CP also hosts 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. The Soo Line had raised the bore of the tunnel 14 inches (36 cm) completed in 1993 to accommodate double stack traffic.[10] The Soo Line considered excavating the hill or "daylighting" the tunnel bore.
Chicago and North Western 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 third tunnel through the hill west of the town was constructed. It is just to the north of the Milwaukee Road tunnels, and parallel. This 1910 tunnel collapsed in March 1973. An extra heavy snow added to already saturated ground.[11] The Chicago and North Western rerouted to the older Milwaukee tunnel.[12] The CNW route, to Onalaska and Winona, is now mostly abandoned between Tunnel City and Medary. The Union Pacific Railroad, which purchased the CNW, has trackage rights from Tunnel City to Winona (Tower CK) on the parallel Canadian Pacific track.[13] These rights date from the CNW tunnel collapse in 1973.[14]
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.
^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.
^CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD Architecture and History Inventory Wisconsin Historical Society. 1976 photographs. quote: "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."
^Green, Doris. Wisconsin Underground: A Guide to Caves, Mines, and Tunnels in and Around the Badger State. United States: Trails Books, 2000.
United States
Wisconsin
