Skip to main content
Back to Show
American Experience

Preliminary Worries with the Pennsylvania Railroad Tunnels

When the Pennsylvania Railroad announced they would be tunneling into Manhattan, rather than building a bridge, people were stunned. Tunneling underwater was known to be dangerous, and once they were built, the tunnels would need to withstand hundreds of trains traveling through them every day. With a typical Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train weighing 700 tons, this was no small challenge.