Tunnel Zero: "Placer’s surprising rail history ... "

"Placer’s surprising rail history ... " by Gus Thomson, © Auburn Journal, 2/2/12. (News Article)

" ... the 711-foot-long tunnel [in] proximity to the Union Pacific tracks, and more than a mile by foot from the Clipper Gap exit off Interstate 80 ... Tunnel Zero was constructed in 1873 after a trestle built to traverse Clipper Gap’s Deep Gulch proved a trifle to wobbly for the Central Pacific Railroad ... bored through what old-timers call Wildcat Summit between Clipper Gap and Applegate and served the railroad well until it was abandoned during World War II ... [as being] too narrow ... The walls are lined with carved blocks of rock ... from the Penryn quarry of Griffith Griffith ... " [More]

[Courtesy Google Alerts.]