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A Bargain with the Railroad The Great Tunnel

The people of Los Angeles figured that their 21-mile It was estimated that it would take two years to bore the
railroad must some day, somehow, be linked to the rest tunnel north of San Fernando through nearly 8000 feet
of the world. Politicians and financiers engaged in loud of solid rock, but that surveys were being made and a
public argument and quiet backroom deals. large force of Chinese stone masons would soon be at
The answer was worked out one day in July, 1872 in work at both ends of the proposed tunnel. During those
the office of former Governor Leland Stanford, president two years, contractor Charles Strobridge, who had built
of the Central Pacific. With him was Charles Crocker, the Central Pacific, would reach the summit of the
who had supervised the building of the railroad from Tehachapi Mountains, and should be able to meet the
California eastward, and who was president of a tracklayers working north from the completed San
newly-acquired subsidiary, the Southern Pacific Railroad. Fernando tunnel some time in 1876.
Another former Governor, John G. Downey, a leading A large force of Chinese workmen began arriving in
citizen of Los Angeles, sat down with the two and they groups of 200 in March 1875. At the foot of the
worked out a deal for the Southern Pacific to build a line mountain through which Phineas Banning and General
out of Los Angeles, to join with the Southern Pacific line Edward F. Beale had made their spectacular cuts, the
then being built southward through the San Joaquin crews began to dig. Work was commenced at
valley, connecting with the Central Pacific main· line near both ends for this 7000 foot bore through solid rock, and
Stockton. In return, the railroad would get full ownership to speed the process, the exact spot at the summit of the
of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, with rolling mountain which would be directly over the center of the
stock, wharf, stations, yards, and rights of way to build tunnel was located by surveyors, and a shaft was sunk
lines to Pomona and Anaheim. through the rock until the level of the tunnel was reached.
To hoist the waste rock out of this bore, the Southern
Pacific's Sacramento shops built a large cable drum and
hoisting engine which was sent in sections by ship and
assembled on top of the mountain. The engine and boiler
had been removed from one of the abandoned Market
Street Ry. steam cars, and as one spectator described, "it
was the funniest looking contrivance you ever did see!"
As soon as the shaft was completed, crews were then
able to work in both directions towards the stone cutters
chipping away at the north and south ends. This
Charles Crocker Photos from Santa Clarita shortened the time required to complete the bore by a
Valley Historical Society
number of months.
On January 1, 1876 the contractor for the San
Fernando Tunnel announced that 2900 feet of the tunnel
had been completed, leaving 4100 feet to go. At that rate
The public, of course, had to buy these properties and
the tunnel was sure to be completed by summer. The
present them to the Southern Pacific. On November 5, track had been extended from San Fernando to the
1872, the voters enthusiastically voted themselves in debt Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society
mouth of the tunnel, where the stage coaches for Mojave
for the sake of the railroad. Beale's Cut, the man-made defile between
and the north could conveniently meet the trains. Charles
The Southern Pacific bustled about in the Los Angeles Crocker announced that 1500 men and 500 animals San Fernando and Newhall, was hacked 30
area through 1873 and most of 1874, building lines to feet deep in the 1850s by Phineas Banning to
were at work in Tehachapi Pass, the line from Caliente to
Anaheim, Pomona, and San Fernando, and importing a Tehachapi Summit requiring the boring of 14 tunnels and get his stagecoaches and wagon teams
total of eight locomotives, but there was little progress on through. A decade later Edward F. Beale, then
the building of a giant loop to keep the grade at the
the rails to the north. commander at Fort Tejon, deepened it to 90
required 2.2%.
Suddenly a rival railroad appeared on the scene, and The San Fernando Tunnel, 7000 feet long, was the feet and sent camel trains through. For 40
Southern Pacific started massive construction. The route principal subject of conversation in Los Angeles as it years after the railroad tunnel was cut beneath
crossed two great barriers: the Tehachapi Mountains it, it was the only way for wagons or cars to
between Bakersfield and the Mojave desert; and the short travel north of San Fernando.
but jagged and forbidding San Gabriel Range between
Leland Stanford. San Fernando and Newhall.