Liberty Tunnel to turn 100 years old
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- One of our tunnels is hitting a huge milestone this year. Back in 1924, the Liberty Tunnel officially opened in Pittsburgh, making it 100 years old.
In the early 1900s, before folks could travel through Mt. Washington to get where they were going, they had to go up, over and around. There needed to be a more efficient way to get people from places like Dormont and Mt. Lebanon to Downtown and back, especially now that folks were on the move in this new contraption known as an automobile.
"The Liberty Tunnel was not the first, but one of the first that really was planned as a tunnel that was designed for automobiles," said Leslie Przybylek, the senior curator at Heinz History Center. "By 1908, 1909, it's clear that cars are kind of the wave of the future. And in fact, it was at that time that you start to see conversations with the different South Hills civic groups saying, 'we need to look at a new option' and they begin to lobby for a tunnel."
What would follow would be a colossal engineering project that would put Pittsburgh on the map. Starting in 1919, four years were spent blasting, digging and moving more than 400,000 tons of dirt and broken rock. And when it was finished in 1924, the tubes were the longest concrete traffic tunnels in the world designed for automobiles.
The issue the tunnel had when it opened was venting all the fumes from the automobiles going through. The solution to that big problem was to build a vent and fan house some 300 feet above the tunnel. And this fan house, much like the tunnel, is still in operation today.
Paul Manyisha is PennDOT's tunnel manager and the person in charge of making sure the tunnel's ventilation house is working properly. Inside a fortress-like building, fans can be seen turning constantly to keep the air in the tubes moving, which in turn keeps the traffic flowing.
Manyisha says for him and his team, it is all about safety for the 20,000 to 30,000 travelers who go through the Liberty Tunnel each day.
"One of the biggest things is that it really does take a village to operate the tunnels," said Manyisha. "We have tunnel maintainers that are in our tunnels 24/7, 365, making sure that pedestrians are being taken care of and that traffic is flowing in and out of the city and just keeping the city of Pittsburgh safe."
Though the Liberty Tunnel has certainly seen a lot of changes outside its entrances over the century, the tubes are largely the same as they were 100 years ago. It has helped define the communities in the South Hills, Pittsburgh and all of its incredible infrastructure. Above all though, this great connecter has kept and will continue to keep us coming and going for years to come.
