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Auburn Tunnel facts for kids

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Auburn Tunnel
Overview
Location Auburn, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°36′48″N 76°06′56″W / 40.61333°N 76.11556°W / 40.61333; -76.11556
Status open cut, abandoned
System Schuylkill Canal
Operation
Work begun 1818
Closed 1857, converted to cut
Owner Schuylkill Navigation Company
Technical
Length 450 feet (140 m)
Highest elevation 471 feet (144 m)
above Delaware River, mid tide
Tunnel clearance 22 feet (6.7 m)
Width 15 feet (4.6 m)

Auburn Tunnel was a 19th-century canal tunnel built for the Schuylkill Canal near Auburn, Pennsylvania. It was the first transportation tunnel in the United States.

The tunnel was deliberately added to the canal as a novelty, as the hill it was bored though could have easily been bypassed. It became a major attraction, with people traveling over 97 miles (156 km) upriver from Philadelphia to see it. It was periodically shortened, and in 1857 was daylighted to become an open-cut.

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