About Turn Hole Tunnel
Gallery
History
When the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad (L&S), a subsidiary of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, extended its mainline from White Haven to Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) through the Lehigh Gorge in 1866, 1 it crossed the Lehigh River at the Turn Hole, a deep eddy where the river made a sharp turn at the base of a high cliff 2 known as Moyer’s Rock. 3 The L&S bored a dual-track tunnel 496 feet in length under Moyer’s Rock. 5
The L&S was leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) in 1871. 4
The Turn Hole Tunnel was condemned in 1910 because of ongoing rock falls. 6 The railroad began work to bypass the tunnel in 1911, grading a new alignment parallel with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and it opened to through traffic in 1912. The original two tracks in the tunnel were kept intact and used as a passing siding until 1956 when they were abandoned.
The CNJ mainline through Lehigh Gorge was abandoned in late 1956 and later repurposed as the Lehigh Gorge Trail. 4
Structure
Dimensions & Classification
| Total Length | 496 feet |
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Photographs
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Sources & Citations
References for this location, in MLA format.
Show all 6 sources
- “LC&N records, Pennsylvania State Archives MG311.”
- “A Gazetteer of the State of Pennsylvania.” 1832.
- Covered Bridges of the Middle Atlantic States. Stephen Greene Press, 1959, p. 28, 1959, p. 28.
- “Railroads of Pennsylvania Encyclopedia and Atlas.” 1987, p. 308.
- “Tunneling, explosive compounds, and rock drills.” 1893, p. 1086.
- “Railway Construction.” Railway Age Gazette, 4 Aug. 1911.
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