8th Street Tunnel What is it????

[ropingk]

Hey W/R what was the 8th Street Tunnel built for???I thought I read it was a subway??? but that dont sound right, is it a underground train tunnel or what???

[peterbillionaire]

it was a streetcar tunnel; built in 1888 to take cable cars from downtown kc down to the west bottoms; around 1900, the cable cars were replaced by electrified cars, which were easier to maintain than the cable mechanism; the only place in the usa where cable cars still run is san francisco

http://www.undergroundozarks.com/8thstreetkcs.html

[ropingk]

Ok so was there tracks??? was it like the electric cars we used to see in Old St Louis???
was there a depot to board and leave??
I am guessing it just kinda filled in and that is the reason for the big dirt mounds??
How did they get fresh air down there?? or were they not as long as they look??

[peterbillionaire]

yes, definitely there were tracks; these were street cars which ran on rails; i don't think there was a depot; just loading platforms where the cars stopped; my guess is that the tunnel was not so long as to need mechanical ventilation; when the cars were running, the tunnel would have been open at both ends; the cars themselves would have pushed or sucked in fresh air; also, there were no exhaust fumes, because the cars were powered by electricity; the tunnel was closed many years ago, and there has been modern construction all around it, so it is probably much different now than when it was an operating tunnel;

[S1L3N7B0B]

Well done peterbillionaire. You covered just about all of it. It really hasn't changed much. A lot of the wood has rotted away though. It's really hard to tell where most of the stuff existed as well (boarding, lighting, tracks, etc.)

[ropingk]

Thanks for the info I have a way bettere understanding of it now and you are so right that electric does not have exhust fumes and how the cars would push and pull air I guess i thought it was a train tunnel or something like that---hey how far down is it and do you think it was dug by hand????

[S1L3N7B0B]

Well, the tunnel goes down at an angle. So it's depth varies from ground level to anywhere around 75ft maybe? Thats more of an estimate.

[ropingk]

It is kinda like when you look at the Old Building in all the big citys and think Man How did they do this without the modern equipment we have today
So to think they actually tunnled that far down with no big earth moving equipment and layed all thoes bricks by hand and it is still standing pretty cool

[S1L3N7B0B]

Yeah, the condition of the tunnel is quite amazing as well.

[Mindscape]

It is kinda like when you look at the Old Building in all the big citys and think Man How did they do this without the modern equipment we have today
So to think they actually tunnled that far down with no big earth moving equipment and layed all thoes bricks by hand and it is still standing pretty cool

You've got to remember a few things, which are often forgotten.

Anything built after WWII (sixty years ago or so) and a lot of things built before then were built with modern technology. Sure, some of the higher-tech, fancier things weren't around, but the basics of construction have been around for a very long time.

Also, some of the things that you might consider modern equipment, like the earth moving equipment, has also been around for a long time. Steam shovels once ruled the earth-moving business, and a great many of them were privately owned. Steam shovel owners were notorious for their competetions to see who could dig the most precise hole in the shortest amount of time. 'Course, that was back when manual laborers took pride in their work, too.

Another thing to remember is that, even today, the vast majority of brickwork (if not all brickwork) is still laid by hand, particularly in home construction. While it's not nearly as well-known or talked about today as it was in the fifties and such, it's still true. A machine just can't get things quite perfect, because it can't adapt to changes in things like mortar consistancy or a brick that's got a chip along the edge in exactly the wrong spot.

What's impressive is that, really, very little's changed except the quality of the building materials improving and the appreciation of the people who build things degrading.

[Willard]

The tunnel we dug in the 1890's. I believe it was hand dug (and blasted in spots because there has to be some rock there too) I'm not sure a steam shovel would go through a tunnel... I could be wrong...

[ropingk]

It is true that the way we do things in construction has not changed a lot and you are 100% right about the brick laying but again that was a time when people took great pride in the fact that they were a "Brick Layer" and not a common labor
there are lots of changes the way conctet is pumped the actual concret mix
the earth movers of today are really just a bigger and faster version of the early models but the are a lot faster and way more efficent
I dont know how the dug the tunnel and i dont know how they would do it today but I have seen the big tunnling machines they use to go long distances and they are just awesome
I guess all in all it is a lot of the same princples with a touch of high tec added after all a lot of homes are still built with 2x4's and nails it is juts how we get the nail into the floor

[youthsonic]

The tunnel we dug in the 1890's.

Make that 1880's, because the thing was opened in 1888.

[White Rabbit]

I have an article up about it here:

LINK!

According to it, they started with hundreds of workers with picks and shovels digging into the bluff and then started blasting when they hit rock. And they managed to build it in 348 days.

[ropingk]

Well that is a pertty good artical----hard to belive how many things got acomplished wiht hard work and dertimination
Hey i liked the part about it not being open to the public
do you think that means US