Sideling Hill
| Sideling Hill | |
|---|---|
 Sideling Hill road cut Alternate view |
|
| Elevation | 2,301 ft (701 m) |
| Location | |
| Location | West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, USA |
| Range | Ridge-and-valley Appalachians |
| Coordinates | 39°43′09.08″N 78°17′01.41″W / 39.7191889°N 78.283725°W |
| Topo map | USGS Paw Paw |
Sideling Hill is part of the Allegheny Mountains of the Appalachian Mountain Range (also considered part of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians). It traverses West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania and rises to its highest elevation of 2,301 feet (701 m) in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, USA.[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Road cut
The Sideling Hill road cut is a 340 feet (100 m) deep notch excavated from the ridge of Sideling Hill for Interstate 68, about 7 miles (11 km) west of Hancock in Washington County, Maryland. It is notable as an impressive man-made mountain pass, visible from miles away and is considered one of the best rock exposures in Maryland and the entire northeastern United States.[1] Almost 810 feet (250 m) of strata in a tightly folded syncline are exposed in this road cut. Although other exposures may surpass Sideling Hill in either thickness of exposed strata or in quality of geologic structure, few can equal its combination of both. The rocks consist of the Devonian-Mississippian Rockwell Formation underlying the Mississippian Purslane Sandstone. An Exhibit Center to help provide the public with a better understanding of the cut's geology has been relocated to Main Street in Hancock; the exhibit area located at the westbound rest area was closed in August 2009. A pedestrian walkway bridge crosses I-68, connecting eastbound and westbound rest areas to a walkway for close-up viewing of the cut.[2]
[edit] Exhibit Center
A highway rest stop at Sideling Hill on Interstate 68 west of Hancock, Maryland, originally included an exhibit center, which opened in 1991. The center included a four-level geological museum and travel information center.
The Sideling Hill Exhibit Center closed on Aug. 15, 2009 due to state budget cuts. The closing of the exhibit center saved about $110,000 annually as part of a $280 million budget reduction package. Before its closing, the center served about 95,000 visitors annually, at a cost of about $1.16 per visitor.[3]
[edit] Road Tunnel
A tunnel through Sideling Hill is currently in its third phase of life. In the 1880s, a tunnel was partially bored through the mountain near Breezewood, Pennsylvania by the South Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad project ceased, and the tunnel was left abandoned. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission began constructing the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the right-of-way of the old South Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s, the tunnel was completed.
The tunnel, which, at 6,782 feet (2,067 m), was the longest of the seven original turnpike tunnels, was used from the Turnpike's opening in 1940 until 1968. Due to increasing traffic on the highway, the turnpike commission began upgrading all of its two-lane tunnels. This project involved constructing twin bores for tunnels through the Allegheny, Tuscarora, Kittatinny, and Blue mountains. Tunnels under Laurel Hill, Rays Hill, and Sideling Hill were bypassed with new, four-lane highways climbing the adjacent hills.
The Sideling Hill bypass, completed at a cost of $17,203,000, opened on November 26, 1968, bypassing the Sideling Hill tunnel and the nearby Rays Hill tunnel. The tunnels, along with connecting segments of four-lane highway, were used for many years as a testing facility for new highway technologies. In 2001, the tunnel was sold to the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy for $1, which now operates it as a bike trail.
[edit] Railroad Tunnel
The East Broad Top Railroad constructed a tunnel through Sideling Hill in 1873–74 as part of its mainline construction. The tunnel predates the South Penn tunnel construction 11 miles to the south by eight years. The tunnel is single track and curved at each end. It originally had a stone portal on its eastern (RR North) end and a natural stone portal at its western (RR South) end, but about 1919 the north portal was replaced with a concrete one. The north portal was equipped with doors to prevent wind from blowing through the tunnel as the wind caused water percolating into the tunnel to freeze on the tracks in the winter. In 1911, this ice caused the brand new locomotive #12 to derail its pilot axle inside the tunnel then derail the entire locomotive at the Kimmel switch just beyond the tunnel. In the 1940s, the doors were equipped with remote actuators mounted on poles a few hundred feet before each portal. This allowed the crews to open and close the doors without stopping. The system did not work flawlessly and a door was ripped off by a caboose cupola.
The tunnel was in service from 1874 until the railroad ceased operations in 1956. The line is technically out of service, not abandoned and the track is still in place through the tunnel, though it is not serviceable. The tunnel and rail line are private property and not open to the public.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Maryland Geological Survey, "Geology of the Sideling Hill Road Cut", accessed 2009-03-09.
- ^ Maryland Department of Natural Resources,"Sideling Hill Visitor Center," accessed 2009-03-09.
- ^ Sideling Hill Exhibit Center to close (The Herald-Mail, July 22,2009)
[edit] External links
- Photographs
