This tunnel,
on the Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana, was carved
through the mountainside in the early 1930s. The road is both a National
Historic Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
The Going-To-The-Sun is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift.
The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed. The road is generally open from June to mid October, with its latest-ever opening on July 13, 2011.
This image was taken in July, when it is rare to find the road empty of cars.
Shares are welcome!
The Going-To-The-Sun is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift.
The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed. The road is generally open from June to mid October, with its latest-ever opening on July 13, 2011.
This image was taken in July, when it is rare to find the road empty of cars.
Shares are welcome!
 |
| Tunnel Road in Glacier National Park Montana |
No comments:
Post a Comment