The Brockville Railway Tunnel is Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's first railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 tunnel

Tunnel

A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...

. It is located beneath the city of Brockville

Brockville, Ontario

Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Though it serves as the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Brockville is politically independent and is grouped with Leeds and Grenville for census purposes only.Known as the "City of the 1000...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 and passes under the City Hall.

The tunnel runs in a northerly direction from the Blockhouse Island causeway on the northern bank of the St. Lawrence River for a distance of 527 m (1,730 ft). It was designed to permit access to the riverfront by the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. Construction of the tunnel began in September 1854 but was not opened for rail traffic until December 31, 1860. The tunnel was built to facilitate the Brockville and Ottawa Railway linking the port facilities on the St. Lawrence River ship route with the timber trade of the Ottawa Valley

Ottawa Valley

The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...

.

The Brockville and Ottawa Railway, incorporated in 1853, ran from Brockville to Sand Point

Sand Point, Ontario

Sand Point is a community in the township of McNab/Braeside, Ontario, Canada, along the Ottawa River, roughly six miles to the west of Arnprior on the River Road...

, near Arnprior

Arnprior, Ontario

Arnprior is a town in Renfrew County, in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located at the mouth of the Madawaska River, as it enters the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley...

, with a branch line from Smiths Falls

Smiths Falls, Ontario

Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the census division for Lanark County, but is considered a separated town and does not participate in county government...

 to Perth

Perth, Ontario

Perth is a town in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada . It is located on the Tay River, 83 km southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County.-History:...

. Its first train left Brockville's Grand Trunk station on January 25, 1859, almost two years before finances permitted completion of the tunnel. The Brockville and Ottawa amalgamated in 1878 with the Canada Central Railway, which was absorbed by the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

 (CPR) in 1881.

The rail line through the tunnel was used by special height-shortened diesel trains

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

 into the mid-1970s. The rails and ties were then sold and the Railway Tunnel was no longer used as it was built. In the 1980s the tunnel was turned over to the City of Brockville by Marathon Realty, the real estate wing of the Canadian Pacific Railway. During the tourist season, the first 85 feet of the original tunnel is opened daily for visitors. An historical story and picture display can be viewed inside the tunnel which tells the historical story of the tunnel.

Adjacent to the tunnel is a refurbished CPR caboose

Caboose

A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...

that was donated in 1987 to the city by the Canadian Pacific Railway. A detailed plaque in both English & French describes the details and story of how cabooses were formerly part of every train.