| Spring Garden Tunnel | |
North Portal of Spring Garden Tunnel |
|
| City | Spring Garden, California |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Railway(s) | BNSF, UP |
| Coordinates | coordinates |
| Type | Tunnel |
The Spring Garden Tunnel at 7,344 ft (2,238 m) in Spring Garden, California is the longest of 34 tunnels of the Feather River Route (cf. (Chilcoot Tunnel)[1] and crosses under the drainage divide between the East Branch North Fork Feather River (north portal, ) and the Middle Fork Feather River drainage (south portal, ).
The Western Pacific Railroad (now part of the Union Pacific Railroad) built the tracks along the Feather River in 1909 to complete the Feather River Route, a San Francisco Bay Area - Salt Lake City, Utah, route competing with the Southern Pacific's route over Donner Pass.
The Feather River Route was preferred over the Donner Pass route (elevation about 7,000 feet / 2,133.6 m) over the Sierra Nevada Mountains because the Feather River route's pass (Beckwourth Pass) is at a lower elevation (about 5,221 feet / 1,591 m) and most of the route follows a more subtle grade along the Feather River.
The tunnel was designated one of Plumas County's "7 Wonders of the Railroad World,"[2] and the north portal is 0.15 miles west on Railroad Street, then 0.35 miles SSE along a fair-condition dirt road from Spring Garden, California.