The Tunnels of Detroit

[Wingnatic]

I'm betting there was a secret door that went to the rectory in that tunnel and maybe another secret door that went to Milroy's lol

[MikeM]

The Beacon-Woodward Tunnel

by A. A. Sellke

October, 1926


"Elsewhere in this issue of Synchroscope, Supt. J. H. Walker of Central Heating tells about the new Beacon Street heating plant, its size and expected load, and the factors which influenced its design and location.

"In order to distribute the steam generated by Beacon Street heating plant, steam lines had to be run to the new plant from our prsent underground distribution system. Since, in the first place, the routes of several of these lines were the same; and since, secondly, the downtown area was congested with other lines in the street, the only solution was a new tunnel. Totaling 2067 feet in length, it is, in area, our largest steam tunnel - a three-ring brick, horseshoe shaped tunnel, varying in size from 8 feet, 6 inches high by 8 feet, 6 inches wide, to 8 feet high by 8 feet, 6 inches wide.

"This tunnel lies beneath Grand River Avenue from the alley east of Woodward to Randolph Street and then east in Madison Avenue to the new Beacon Street heating plant just east of Beaubien Street; crossing above it in Brush Street is the sewer line [[diameter 13 feet, six inches) which is about 40 feet deep.

"At the alley east of Woodward, the tunnel is connected to our present tunnels by means of a shaft, 10 feet in diameter, dropping down about 20 feet to the level of the new tunnel. This makes the new tunnel about 60 feet deep at the shallowest end and about 66 feet deep at the plant end.




Sixty feet below Grand River Avenue, traffic is light





Clay slicing with a winch-pulled knife



"The ultimate capacity of this large tunnel is four 16-inch mains and two 6-inch return lines. One main and one return line are practically complete at this time.

"At the plant end, the sketch on page 257 gives an idea of the complex construction which was entirely completed below the ground before the shaft was brought up to the surface and before we connected to the 14-foot shaft inside the plant.






"This tunnel under the street was completed with two working shafts, one at Grand River Avenue and Farmer Street and the other just west of Brush Street on Madison Avenue. From these two locations all the earth was removed. In each case the miners worked both ways simultaneously from a working shaft, completing approximately 28 feet of excavation daily. The miners used a large curved knife drawn by a motor driven winch, which cut off long slices of clay much like sausages. These slices were in turn cut by spades into small pieces and were thrown into buckets loaded on cars; by means of a narrow gauge track the loaded cars were pushed to the working shaft, where they were hoisted to the surface.

"The brick and mortar were handled in the same manner as the clay. Immediately upon the completion of a day's mining, the brick-layers bricked up the day's drive, thus leaving the tunnel practically complete as far as constructed, thereby leaving no chance for a cave-in to occur.

"At Brush Street we have a safety chamber, that is, a shaft opening in the sidewalk and completely shut off from the tunnel proper by means of a steel door. A circular stairway leads up to a floor beneath the street and by pushing the cover off the manhole one can come out on the sidewalk. In case of a break in the steam line this shaft would protect any person entering it from the escaping steam and would no doubt save the person's life. Lights have been installed along the tunnel and telephones will be installed at convenient locations.

"Along the route of this new steam tunnel, fresh air inlets for ventilation will be installed, thus keeping the temperature of the tunnel down to workable conditions. It may be interesting to note here that, with steam lines operating, the temperatures in the steam tunnels will fluctuate around 115° F and higher.

"By entering the tunnel at Beacon Street plant and proceeding along the tunnel route, one can travel approximately two and one-half miles underneath the downtown section of Detroit in tunnels of both square and horseshoe shapes, and varying in height from 8 1/2 to 5 1/4 feet."

[Bluenote132003]

Pretty cool, MikeM!

[WaCoTS]

pretty much any parish, hospital, factory, or school with its own steam heating plant or separate buildings will have at least one tunnel.

the Henry Ford Museum / Ford Experimental Engineering Lab / Greenfield Village complex has tunnels going all thru it from the powerplant visible from Michigan Ave. in fact inside the museum there's a doorway underneath the giant Highland Park Model T Plant dynamo, that leads into a tunnel. Henry Ford loved tunnels. i was told by a phone company employee that supposedly he had tunnels connecting Fair Lane, the Village, and the Rouge Plant.
there was a tunnel going between the Rotunda and the old Rouge Plant Admin blg, but those blgs are both gone.

the Highland Park Model T Plant did have a tunnel from the HP State Bank across Manchester, going to the Ford paymaster's office. the Rouge Plant itself has plenty of tunnels...i am told by two different people that there was an "escape tunnel" built by Ford from his Rouge Plant that exited somewhere on Eagle Pass...supposedly because he was worried for his life during the early labor strife. i've never found any evidence of such a tunnel. one said that it led to the basement of a store at Wyoming & Eagle Pass that their grandfather owned.

i am also told by a former DPL employee that there was a tunnel underneath Woodward Ave connecting the DPL main branch to the DIA, but that it was gated-off halfway, so he never was able to verify.

there is a tunnel under 15th street connecting the old Roosevelt Warehouse to MCS, and supposedly another coal tunnel under the viaduct over Vernor.

there used to be steam tunnels at Fort Wayne back when it was all built up and the grounds were covered in warehouses and railroad spurs. there is of course the demilune magazine tunnel as well.

the New Dodge Bar in Hamtramck has that smuggler's tunnel that you can still see to this day thanks to a plexiglass panel in the floor of the men's room, lol.

there is a bootlegger's tunnel across the alley between the Busy Bee Hardware Store at Gratiot & Russell, according to an article by that Sweet Juniper guy.

i also heard a rumor that a smuggling tunnel existed between the basement of the Milner Hotel and some dude's mansion in Brush Park, but thats kind of a stretch, and the freeway would cut right thru that now. but then again the tunnel in the New Dodge Bar was on a smuggling network that allegedly stretched all the way to the river, so....?

there was a tunnel from the old Wayne County Jail to the old Wayne County Courthouse.

when the Mariners' Church was moved in the 1950s, they discovered an old tunnel leading from its basement to the riverfront, thought to have been used for the Underground Railroad.

there is also a mysterious tunnel near Maheras Gentry Park that i have not yet figured out. it's caving in, making it easy to find.