Charles Cahoon to Give Talk on Hoosac Tunnel Aug. 7
STEPHENTOWN, N.Y. — Charles Cahoon will give an illustrated talk on the Hoosac Tunnel, on Sunday, Aug. 7, at 2 p.m. at the Stephentown Heritage Center.
The tunnel, a straight run of 4.75 miles between North Adams and the Massachusetts town of Florida, is the longest active railroad tunnel east of the Rockies. This Stephentown Historical Society program meeting will be held. The program is free and the building is handicapped accessible.
The construction of the Hoosac Tunnel produced a shorter and lower elevation rail route from Boston to Troy, New York. The work took nearly 25 years and cost the lives of 196 workers. Drilling and removal of two million tons of rock required innovative surveying and engineering methods and 21 million dollars. The first train chugged through the tunnel in 1875. Both freight and passenger service used this route. It currently carries eight freight trains a day.
Cahoon is the president of the North Adams Historical Society dba North Adams Museum of History and Science. He has been promoting the history of the tunnel since 1971 when the town of North Adams began preparing the centennial celebration of the tunnel’s completion.
For more information, go to (518) 733-0010.
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