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keystone arch tunnel on Tunnel Road a historic structure, the town's
historian said Wednesday.
S. Ardis Abbott, director of the Vernon Historical Society Museum, said
getting the designation is exciting.
"We thought about it for a long time," Abbott said. "It's a very
interesting structure and historically significant."
The tunnel is 108 feet long and was built between 1846 and 1849, Abbott
said. The Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad built it to carry
track in the first attempt to connect Providence and the Hudson River
with an east-west rail line, Abbott said.
According to Abbott, the tunnel represents the difficulties early
railroad builders faced. Workers had a hard time with the many hills and
valleys they encountered, Abbott said.
"From the standpoint of railroad engineering, it's very interesting,"
Abbott said.
Mayor Stephen C. Marcham said it is important to preserve historic
structures in town.
"If we were strictly thinking in terms of the best way of getting our
people throughout town, that tunnel would have been dynamited years
ago," Marcham said. "But it's so much a part of the fiber of our town
that I am hopeful that it will be preserved for hundreds of years."
Marcham said the tunnel does create traffic problems. The tunnel has
stop signs on either end of it, and drivers must wait their turn before
they drive through.
"It's just a funny juxtaposition of revering the old while recognizing
that there are more efficient ways of doing things," Marcham said.
"There's no question it creates a bit of a bottleneck, but on the other
hand it's a bottleneck that gives people a few seconds to reflect on
what life used to be like, and that's not a bad thing."
In designating structures as historic, the Connecticut Historical
Commission solicits applications for sites to be placed on the state
register, according to John Herzan, state register coordinator.
Staff members review the application, evaluate the structure's
historical significance and architecture, and then recommend inclusion
on the registry to the commission, which meets monthly, Herzan said.
If officials wanted to do something to the tunnel, which is on a state
road, they would have to contact staff members at the commission, who
assess the impact on historically designated structures.
The tunnel carries a hiking trail, part of the Rails to Trails, over
Tunnel Road.
