150-year-old remnants of railroads still dot the landscape.
This picture, taken in the 1930s, shows one of two, still operating Marin railroad tunnels that were built nearly 150-years ago. That’s an electric-powered interurban railcar entering the 1,200-foot Cal Park Tunnel, which was constructed in 1884. It was rebuilt in 2010 and is now being used by SMART (Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit) running between Larkspur and numerous northern destinations — the billboard advertising paint is on today’s Highway 101. The other tunnel that is still operational was also rebuilt by SMART, and burrowed into the hill between downtown San Rafael and the Marin County Civic Center. When driving Highway 101 and nearing North San Pedro Road, you’re near this tunnel, the Porto Suello Tunnel.
According to historian Richard Torney, though Marin is one of the smallest counties in California (per area), it once had an astounding 10 railroad tunnels open and operating. Other tunnels include two created in 1884 for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad line that connected Tiburon and San Rafael, the Reed Tunnel near Tiburon’s Blackie’s Pasture where trestle timbers are still standing, and the Meadowsweet Tunnel in Corte Madera where no remnants are visible today. Finally, there’s the much-discussed Alto Tunnel on the Mill Valley – Corte Madera border. Its 2,200-feet length was bored (a process of building a tunnel, using a Tunnel Boring Machine, or TBM) in 1884, and was operational until 1971. It was then sealed shut with pea gravel and concrete.
A group called Friends of Alto Tunnel would now like to reopen it, and create a greenway path for bikes and hikes that would connect southern and northern Marin — its estimated cost is somewhere north of $50 million. Be that as it may, Alto Tunnel was once part of the North Pacific Coast Railroad’s coastal route connecting Sausalito through San Geronimo Valley with Point Reyes Station, Tomales and points as far north as the Russian River. All totaled, that line had six tunnels in Marin, one being Bothin Tunnel, which is near today’s Sir Francis Drake Boulevard as you leave Fairfax heading west. And with a length of 3,190 feet, Bothin is the Granddaddy of Marin’s historic tunnel network.
