RAY'S HILL TUNNEL
Ray's Hill Tunnel - Western Portal
Notice the very narrow overpass shortly
before the western portal. Mountain Chapel Road is the name of the road that goes
under the old roadway here. I have read that this is either County Road
1011 or possibly S.R. 1011. This web
page has a good photo of the road. The consensus on the Internet from
visitors is that parking along this road to take a shortcut to Ray's Hill is not
recommended. The roadway and underpass are very narrow and not much of a
shoulder to park along.
Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
Ray's Hill Tunnel - Eastern Portal
Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
Ray's Hill Tunnel - Western Portal
Modern turnpike alignment is visible in lower right
corner
Coordinates are: -78.20789, longitude; 40.01542, latitude
Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
A topographical view of Ray's Hill
Tunnel
This aerial photograph has been seen around the Internet and sources state that it is Laurel Hill Tunnel's eastern portal. This claim was repeated on this website from it's inception to March 2006. At that time, I received an email from Russell Love who runs the South Penn Railroad website and has done extensive research into the tunnels. Russell was able to convince me that indeed this is NOT Laurel Hill Tunnel, but rather, it is the western portal of Ray's Hill Tunnel. Note the absence of the water tank above the portal. Laurel Hill's eastern portal to this day still features the water tank off to the northwest side of the portal. When the turnpike used the tunnel, the pictures all show the water tank to be visible from the roadway. Thank you Russell for that most keen observation!
This page was created on:
July 1, 2005.
Last updated on:
August 09, 2014.
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