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As Orioles fans walk to their ballpark seats, just below their feet flows
a giant freight conveyor belt, known as the Howard Street Tunnel and all but
unknown to those passing overhead on the sidewalks and asphalt.
Some 30 million bricks went into this sturdy relic of railroad engineering. Excavated more than 100 years ago, the tunnel is used now by CSX Transportation, which says it is the largest subterranean conduit of rail freight along the Atlantic Coast.
Most days, about 40 trains pound through this cavern, a 1.7-mile channel of Stygian darkness and dank, musty air infused with a dense humidity born of outside water seeping down the curving masonry walls. Drainage shoulders beside the rail tracks ooze industrial slime.
"Inside there, it feels old. It feels wet and dark. It's definitely got an ancient feeling," said Bob Blanding, a CSX track maintenance worker.
The tunnel's construction bankrupted the Baltimore and Ohio railroad when it was built in the 1890s, and it was lightly used for decades. But that is not the case anymore.
Virtually all the Tropicana orange juice sold in the northeastern United States flows under Baltimore in huge orange refrigerator cars that make up what railroaders call the "juice train." It stretches almost a mile long and carries citrus juice to a New Jersey distribution plant.
Other long trains haul tons of Fila-brand athletic shoes and tank cars full of oil used in Frito-Lay snacks. Jumbo-sized freight cars filled with automobiles, General Motors Astro vans, John Deere tractors and coal all rattle through the tube.
The tunnel also has a second use. An MCI fiber-optic cable trunk line suspended on the tunnel's west wall carries thousands of long-distance phone calls.
Civil engineers consider the tunnel shallow, with not much fill on the top.
At Camden Street, its top layer of bricks is but 3 feet below the surface. At its deepest, at Madison Street, the tunnel is 49 feet below ground.
A single CSX freight track runs in the middle of a rounded cavity covered with a century's worth of coal and foamy-looking diesel soot deposits.
The rail tube runs alongside the cellars of such downtown landmarks as the Baltimore Arena, former department stores, Maryland General Hospital and Howard Street's antique shops.
The entire structure stretches from a point alongside the lots at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to just above the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The oldest part of the tunnel was built between 1890 and 1895 by a contractor born in Cork County, Ireland, who went on to construct New York's first subway. That original portion was lengthened in the late 1980s to accommodate Orioles' parking and light rail construction.
What was new and marveled at in 1895 is today overlooked, often forgotten by Baltimoreans.
When unveiled by the old B&O railroad, it was the longest soft-earth railroad tunnel in the United States. It also had a world-class status with the first section of mainline railroad electrification anywhere.
No passengers
The one rail classification that does not go through Howard Street is human -- passenger trains use different tunnels in and out of Baltimore.
Passengers have been shut out of the Howard Street Tunnel since 1958 when the B&O withdrew from running passenger trains north of Baltimore.
Some 30 million bricks went into this sturdy relic of railroad engineering. Excavated more than 100 years ago, the tunnel is used now by CSX Transportation, which says it is the largest subterranean conduit of rail freight along the Atlantic Coast.
Most days, about 40 trains pound through this cavern, a 1.7-mile channel of Stygian darkness and dank, musty air infused with a dense humidity born of outside water seeping down the curving masonry walls. Drainage shoulders beside the rail tracks ooze industrial slime.
"Inside there, it feels old. It feels wet and dark. It's definitely got an ancient feeling," said Bob Blanding, a CSX track maintenance worker.
The tunnel's construction bankrupted the Baltimore and Ohio railroad when it was built in the 1890s, and it was lightly used for decades. But that is not the case anymore.
Virtually all the Tropicana orange juice sold in the northeastern United States flows under Baltimore in huge orange refrigerator cars that make up what railroaders call the "juice train." It stretches almost a mile long and carries citrus juice to a New Jersey distribution plant.
Other long trains haul tons of Fila-brand athletic shoes and tank cars full of oil used in Frito-Lay snacks. Jumbo-sized freight cars filled with automobiles, General Motors Astro vans, John Deere tractors and coal all rattle through the tube.
The tunnel also has a second use. An MCI fiber-optic cable trunk line suspended on the tunnel's west wall carries thousands of long-distance phone calls.
Civil engineers consider the tunnel shallow, with not much fill on the top.
At Camden Street, its top layer of bricks is but 3 feet below the surface. At its deepest, at Madison Street, the tunnel is 49 feet below ground.
A single CSX freight track runs in the middle of a rounded cavity covered with a century's worth of coal and foamy-looking diesel soot deposits.
The rail tube runs alongside the cellars of such downtown landmarks as the Baltimore Arena, former department stores, Maryland General Hospital and Howard Street's antique shops.
The entire structure stretches from a point alongside the lots at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to just above the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The oldest part of the tunnel was built between 1890 and 1895 by a contractor born in Cork County, Ireland, who went on to construct New York's first subway. That original portion was lengthened in the late 1980s to accommodate Orioles' parking and light rail construction.
What was new and marveled at in 1895 is today overlooked, often forgotten by Baltimoreans.
When unveiled by the old B&O railroad, it was the longest soft-earth railroad tunnel in the United States. It also had a world-class status with the first section of mainline railroad electrification anywhere.
No passengers
The one rail classification that does not go through Howard Street is human -- passenger trains use different tunnels in and out of Baltimore.
Passengers have been shut out of the Howard Street Tunnel since 1958 when the B&O withdrew from running passenger trains north of Baltimore.
