for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
for Old Town Newhall Association's Night Under the Stars Sept. 13 for SCVTV.com • Local Television for Santa Clarita
San Fernando Railroad Tunnel
Newhall, California
Early 1900s colorized penny postcard by H.T.T. Co. reads, "5322. Entrance to San Fernando Tunnel, California. San Joaquin Valley Line, So. Pac. R.R."Note the sign reading, "All Trains - 7 Minutes - Tunnel."
Back reads: "San Fernando Tunnel. This view, both novel and picturesque, shows in a slight degree the obstacles overcome in constructing the Southern Pacific through the mountains traversed by the Southern Pacific."
A thousand Chinese rail workers spent the better part of a year — and an unknown number gave up their lives — digging the San Fernando Railroad Tunnel. At 6,940 feet, it was the third longest tunnel in the United States when it was completed in August 1876. The tunnel, along the Southern Pacific Railroad's San Joaquin Line, linked the San Fernando Valley (at the Newhall Pass) with the Santa Clarita Valley (in Railroad Canyon), facilitiating the conjoinder a month later of northern California with Southern California at Lang Station in present-day Canyon Country.
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